After this Clarke rebels against the cold unfriendliness of the hospitals.
‘I wrote
All over the walls with my
Words, coloured the clean squares
With the wild, tender circles’
This passage shows Clarke to be striking out against the extreme cleanliness of the hospital. Her writing on the walls is an act of defiance and she is shown to be trying to change how the hospital is seen. To make is seem more hospitable rather than its current frosty persona. It could also be seen as Clarke releasing her frustration with her immediate poor relationship with her daughter out onto the hospital. Pain expressed in the form of her rebellion.
In a change to her more direct style Clarke takes a more reflective tone.
‘Neither won nor lost the struggle
In the glass tank clouded with feelings’
In this quote Clarke seems to point out that their conflict is pointless since neither one will back down from the other and she shows regret about the fact that the time they spend together has to be interrupted by such pointless feuds. Clarke also uses a metaphor about the incubator to mirror the feelings of Clarke and Catrin. It suggests that their feelings are feeling trapped inside the small space and they only have a small window with which to see freedom, before they are both lost together in the tangled web of parenthood.
Clarke’s dislike of her family resurfaces a few lines down in the second stanza.
‘Still I am fighting’
Her hate is tinged with a touch of sadness since whatever she does cannot ever seem to be right for her daughter and that her life just seems to be one big circle of love, disappointment, hate and regret.
The link is once again highlighted between mother and daughter.
‘From the heart’s pool that old rope
Tightening about my life,’
This section describes the link between mother and daughter that can never be broken no matter how mad they are with each other. It is their love and it is has always been with them from the moment Catrin was born; and the red rope of love in stanza one proves that it has always been there. This implies that Clarke believes life to be the same from birth to death constant arguing and bickering.
Catrin finishes with a note of regret.
‘Trailing love and conflict,
As you ask may you skate
In the dark for one more hour’
She regrets that the pair of them are always fighting and perhaps that with a little more effort and obedience they might have had a better relationship. It also shows that Catrin is slowly moving away from her mother, seeking her independence and her freedom. The ‘dark’ also represents the mood between the mother and the daughter at the end of the poem.
The poem ‘Digging’ begins very differently to Catrin. There are no negative words or conflict. It begins with a metaphor which describes his comfort and the power of his writing.
‘The squat pen rests: snug as a gun.’
The warmth of the word ‘snug’ helps the reader to relax and begins the poem on a positive note. It also describes how the pen is crafted for Heaney and it fits well because writing is what he does best. The gun is also a reference back to Ireland’s violent history, but the fact that Heaney talks about this shows that he is proud of his heritage, unlike Clarke who does not once mention her welsh background in ‘Catrin’.
Heaney first mentions his father in the first few lines.
‘Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into the gravely ground:
My father, digging. I look down’
The clean rasping sound as he digs shows that his father is clearly a skilled workman and the fact that Heaney immediately looks down when he hears his father shows that his father commands Heaney’s respect since he is immediately paying attention to his father.
Next, Heaney again describes his father’s workmanlike efficiency.
‘Stooping in rhythm through potato drills’
These words give the impression of Heaney’s father to be plain and predictable but at the same time highly efficient. His efficiency seems almost militaristic and the fact that he has such a refined routine tells me that he is clearly at the top of his profession. Although his father’s job is not glamorous or well paid, it shows that he respects his father’s talents in an area where Heaney himself is not so capable.
Heaney again shows his admiration for his father in the fourth stanza.
‘The coarse boot nestled against the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.’
The harsh adjective of ‘coarse’ shows that although his father is very good at his job he still has to work hard, but the word nestled also shows that his fathers boot and the spade belong together, creating a feeling of intimacy and closeness. This is in contrast to ‘Catrin’ where there was nothing coarse or rough in the hospital and the mother felt she didn’t really belong. The hospital was a very clinical unloving place.
Heaney shows his pride both for his father and his Grandfather in the fifth stanza.
‘By God the old man could handle a spade
Just like his old man.’
This pronouncement of his family’s talents shows the great pride he has for them and the job they have done through the generations, but it also shows a tinge of regret. This is because Heaney does not mention himself in this section; I think this is because deep down he knows that he could never dig like they do, but he respects them greatly for it.
In the sixth stanza Heaney mainly focuses on his pride for his Grandfather.
‘My grandfather could cut more turf in a day
than any other man on Toner's bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
to drink it, and then fell to right away’
This illustrates the awed respect for his Grandfather that he was the best and Heaney hopes that one day he can be the best writer he can be so that his Grandfather will be equally proud of him. All the way through digging we have heard of Heaney’s respect for his family and this is the biggest contrast between Digging and Catrin. This section also demonstrates that Heaney wants to help his family from an early age, even if it is in a haphazard manner. This is because in Catrin the daughter has no respect for each other and therefore we learn nothing about either person because all they do is talk about how much they dislike each other.
Like Catrin however, Digging ends on a note of regret.
‘But I've no spade to follow men like them.
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I'll dig with it.’
Heaney is regretful because he knows that he does not have the patience or dedication to dig as his ancestors have done. His great skill lies in writing, so all he can do is try and follow his family’s tradition by digging up the past with his writing. He also feels obliged to preserve his family’s history through his writing.
In conclusion the main difference between Digging and Catrin is that of respect and the lack of it that Catrin has for her mother, as compared to the awed respect of Heaney for his ancestors. There are few similarities between the two poems although it can be said that both of the younger relatives did love their parents although they expressed this in two very different fashions.
Jack Swindlehurst 5MSF
