1. Catrin

2. I can remember you, child, As I stood in a hot, white
Past tense – reader immediately knows this person has either gone or changed
Room is uncomfortable and soulless
Poet talking directly to her child
I can remember you, child,
As I stood in a hot, white
Room at the window watching
The people and cars taking
Turn at the traffic lights.
I can remember you, our first
Fierce confrontation, the tight
Red rope of love which we both
Fought over. It was a square
Environmental blank, disinfected
Of paintings or toys.
Birth – the pair were fighting even before she was born
Metaphor – the umbilical cord – the love bond between them
The room is sterile and emotionless – contrasts with the struggle she experiences

3. All over the walls with my Words, coloured the clean squares
Oxymoron emphasises the contrast in emotions the relationship can bring
Could be a metaphor to show the words she screams while in labour, filling the room
I wrote
All over the walls with my
Words, coloured the clean squares
With the wild, tender circles
Of our struggle to become
Separate. We want, we shouted,
To be two, to be ourselves.
Birth is a struggle for the mother and the child

4. Neither won nor lost the struggle
Metaphor of a fish bowl to show the emotions they have experienced in their relationship
As though their relationship starts on neutral terms
Neither won nor lost the struggle
In the glass tank clouded with feelings
Which changed us both. Still I am fighting
You off, as you stand there
With your straight, strong, long
Brown hair and your rosy,
Defiant glare,
Time has changed but they still fight
Alliteration and rhyme emphasise the girl’s defiance and her mother’s admiration of her

5. From the heart’s pool that old rope, Tightening about my life,
The metaphor for the umbilical cord again – they are still connected and daughter still tries to break free
bringing up
From the heart’s pool that old rope,
Tightening about my life,
Trailing love and conflict,
As you ask may you skate
In the dark, for one more hour.
Juxtaposition between love and conflict – parent must fight with daughter because she loves her

6. How does it link to the other poems?
Conflict – “Parade’s End”; “Belfast Confetti”; “Our Sharpeville”
Adult/child relationship – “Our Sharpeville”
Pain – “Exposure”