Hi, everyone, this is Mr. Chandrapala, and I'm really looking forward to working with you today.

We're gonna be looking at Clarke's "Catrin," which is a really wonderful poem, exploring the relationship between a mother and daughter.

However, this is part of our Edexcel conflict poetry anthology.

So it's maybe already worth asking, how does that idea of motherhood and parental relationships create link to that idea of conflict? Let's find out.

Our outcome for today is to be able to explain how Clarke presents internal parental conflict in her poem.

Our keyword therefore are the adjective "parental," which is related to a characteristic of a parental parenthood, the adjective "prevalent," which means something that is widespread or commonly occurring within a particular area or at particular times.

The noun "incubator," which is a medical device that provides a controlled environment to support the growth of often premature or ill babies.

The concept of inner conflict, which is the psychological struggle within a person, often involving contradictory emotional desires, and the concept of interpersonal conflict, which is the disagreement or clash between individuals due to differing opinions, needs, or interests.

So we're going to start off by exploring the text in its wider context.

So Gillian Clarke was the National Poet of Wales from 2008 to 2016, and her work often explores relationships and family.

It's also known for its use of natural imagery.

Clarke's poetry ca includes "Catrin," which was published shortly after Clarke's first daughter was born.

She uses her own experiences of motherhood to explore the challenges of motherhood, especially as children grow up.

But this poem is part of her anthology entitled "Conflict." I said that was actually quite subversive of what we would normally expect for mother and baby, but how do you think parental relationships explore ideas of conflict? I want you to pause the video and take a little bit of time to discuss that amongst yourselves or jot some ideas down if you're working independently.

And once you've done so, hit Play.

Excellent work there, everyone.

Some really fascinating discussions.

Let's see what you could have said.

So in terms of those two conflicts we were discussing earlier in our key words, we have interpersonal and inner conflict.

So when we're talking about interpersonal conflict, we can talk about arguments and disagreements and rule breaking and consequences, which we can imagine in parent-child relationship, or at least I know that I can imagine in a parent-child relationship, having grown up as occasionally disobeying my parents, going against what they wanted.

And those things can be quite small sometimes, not going to bed when you are told to, or they can be quite major and almost take on the form of lying to your parents.

There's also the inner conflict though, and that's almost more on the parental side as much as the child.

There's the letting go, isn't there, that the mother and father having to let go of their child, understand that they are their own person making their own decisions, or the fact that the child is growing up, and therefore, changing.

That they are not stuck in this state of being continuously dependent.

So it's been said that Clarke wrote the poem in response to someone discussing how quickly it seemed like their baby had grown into a teenager.

But which type of conflict do you predict will be most prevalent in the poem? Have a look at interpersonal conflict and inner conflict and decide which one you think is gonna be most prevalent.

So most prominent, most obvious within the poem.

And once you've done so, hit Play.

Excellent work there.

Let's see.

So the only way for us to find out truly is for us to read "Catrin." So I would like you to turn to your poetry anthology and read the poem independently now.

Pause the video, and once you've read it, hit Play.

Some wonderful reading there.

And I like the fact that a few of you were even beginning to underline key phrases even on that first read.

So in terms of our glossary, we just need to know the word "confrontation," which is an argument or direct conflict.

The word "disinfected," which means cleaned or germ free, the adjective "tender" which is soft and gentle, the adjective "defiant," which means boldly resistant or challenging authority.

But what are our first impressions of the poem? Pause the video, have that discussion with your partner, and once you've done so, hit Play.

Some lovely stuff, I heard a couple of you summarising the poem and explaining it as a sort of reflection on a mother-child relationship, which I think is a really good starting place.

So let's begin exploring the poem together.

Here are a series of key images that we could link to the poem.

They each represent the order of images in the poem.

I want you just to pause now and find a quotation to link to each image.

Once you've done so, hit Play.

Really well done.

So for that first image, I was expecting you to pick out the word "white" in line two or three.

Whilst in the second, "people," "cars" comes in line four.

For that idea of the knot, we have the "rope." And then we have the "words" on the wall, right? We have "separate" and "two" with the holding hands.

"Fish tank," "hair," "the rosy" symbolising, ah, maybe (indistinct).

A repetition of that "rope," "love" and "conflict" in line 27, and then "skate" to end.

But we're gonna explore the progression of ideas in the first half of the poem.

From "white" to "people," "cars," "rope," "words, and "separate" and "two." Remember, line one, the poem is framed as a memory.

It's a retrospect.

It's looking back at what has gone.

And Clarke takes a specific moment, and that is the moment.

Her daughter, or the speaker's daughter, rather, is born.

As the child is born, a connection joins them.

That is the rope that they will struggle with as time moves on.

Then Clarke describes how the moment of the mother meeting her baby colours and changes the clinical hospital room.

Both the child and the mother yearn to be physically separated after they have been joined together for so long during pregnancy.

Then there needs to be that moment of each of them sort of being alone, being able to be alone.

But what could the rope symbolise as it connects mother-baby? What could that potentially act as an example for? Or symbolically? Pause the video, have that discussion.

What could the rope be symbolical between a mother and daughter or a mother and child? And when you've done so, hit Play.

Some really interesting ideas I heard a couple of people say.

It's an emotional bond, a spiritual bond.

Some of you were talking about the idea of the umbilical cord.

I think it's that idea of the umbilical cord connecting the mother and baby, quite physical rope though.

But we now explore how the ideas progress in the second top.

At the beginning of the second stanza, Clarke describes a tank full of feelings.

What could the tanks symbolise? What feelings do you think it could contain? Pause the video, have that discussion.

And when you're ready, hit Play.

Excellent work there, everyone.

So at the beginning of the second stanza, Clarke describes a tank full of feelings, which could symbolise the incubator.

Feelings could be the baby.

Perhaps, fear of the big wide world, or the mother's fear for the baby's health.

With the "still" in line 20, we have a shift forward in time.

So we move from the retrospective nature of the first stanza and the start to now the present tense.

The baby is now a defiant child.

And the old connection still exists between the mother and child, but it isn't always there in the same way.

So we're left with the image of the child asking the mother to stay out later.

The final image that we are focusing on is that word "skate." But what could it symbolise? Pause the video, have that discussion, and when you're ready, hit Play.

Excellent work there, everyone.

So if we're thinking about what that final image could symbolise, you may want to note that it could symbolise the moment of letting go.

Here, the child is eager for their independence and freedom away from the mother.

The poem perhaps tracks the journey from the beginning of their close connection to the moment where it starts to separate.

So just a quick chat for understanding here.

What do we think the rope and the tank symbolises? A, the parental relationship in the daily home? B, the love, anxiety/fear? C, the umbilical cord and the incubator? Or D, baby and mother? Pause the video, select A, B, C, or D.

And when you're ready, hit Play.

Well done, everyone.

It is option C and B.

So it's the love and anxiety and fear on an emotional level.

That's what the rope can symbolise.

But then on the physical level, there's the umbilical cord and incubator.

So you may wanna just jot those down there.

So we understand that these symbolic objects represent both the objects in the delivery room, as well as the emotions felt at the birth.

It's really important to understand that there is a concrete and abstract idea linked to these symbols.

Do we agree with Alex's comment about "Catrin" that we're about to read now? I want you to think as we're reading - why, why not? Alex argued, "Clarke perhaps uses 'Catrin' to reflect on her own experience of motherhood.

The structure of the poem could explore how the maternal relationship changes as children grow up and seek independence." I want you to discuss your response to Alex's interpretation and I want you to support your ideas with compelling reasons, evidence from the text, and relevant contextual knowledge.

Once you've done so, hit Play.

So we're now going to have a look at what some of our Oak pupils said in response to Alex's interpretation.

Sam said, "I actually disagree with Alex, 'cause I think Clarke only uses her personal experiences to reflect on motherhood more widely.

The poem was written shortly after the birth of Clarke's daughter, so the later scenes of her daughter as a child are necessarily fictional." Whilst June says, "I agree with Alex since this poem was written just after the birth of Clarke's daughter.

As she reflects the relationship, the "rope," perhaps a representation of the umbilical cord, later symbolises that love between the mother and the daughter." Both of these candidates have given interesting ideas, but I want you to discuss, who do you agree most with? If you working in pairs, one of you may want to argue with Sam, one of you, sorry, may want to argue for Sam, and another may want to argue for June.

And then come together and see which is better.

Or you may just want to independently decide which is better, or if again, if you're working in pairs, you may just want to look at those together and see which one meets that success criteria more effectively, and therefore, you would agree with.

Pause the video, have that discussion, and when you're ready, hit Play.

Excellent work there, everyone.

So we're now going to focus on comparing this poem and thinking about what we could compare it to within the anthology.

So we're considering here its similarities and differences.

We asked Sophia and Izzy to attempt to answer the following question: how do the poets present relationships in "Catrin" and one other poem from the anthology? So they were deciding which poem compare with "Catrin." Izzy said, "Well, I think I'm gonna choose "A Poison Tree," while Sophia was considering "Poppies." Which one would you say you most agree with this? Pause the video, have a discussion between yourselves, maybe jot some ideas down in your notes.

Once you've done so, hit Play.

Excellent work there, everyone.

So Izzy and Sophia have gone for two very different poems here.

It's important that they're looking at the interpersonal conflict, the negative relationship, the key ideas of wrath and resentment.

And that's very clear in Izzy's choice of "Poison Tree," whilst Sophia's choice of "Poppies" is interesting, 'cause it's still focused on interpersonal conflict, but it's now more of a parental relationship.

And there's that idea of grief and letting go.

You may have said similar things as, oh, when discussing the sort of shared poems, well, sorry, shared connections between "Catrin" and "A Poison Tree" or "Catrin" and "Poppies." It's worth looking at here that though Izzy is absolutely right to point out that both of them have interpersonal conflict, it's Sophia's choice of "Poppies" means that there is a focus on interpersonal conflict as well as the parental relationship and that idea of letting go, which is so key in both "Catrin" and "Poppies," that idea of poppies, of the imagery of the bird to symbolise that sense of letting someone fly.

I would, therefore, argue that there are more similarities between "Catrin" and "Poppies." So if we're thinking about comparing "Catrin" and "Poppies," Izzy interfere with tasks again, thinking about what they could look at.

Izzy said, "Well, both poets use second person pronouns to address the other character in the poem.

This makes the poem seem more personal as we are hearing the private words of a mother to her child." Well, Sophia said, "Yes, both poets focus on the close bond between the mother and child, exploring the impact of the detachment that comes with child growing and becoming more independent." But whose comparison do you think is more effective? You may want to work in your pairs and just look at both together.

Or you may want to split it so that one of you looks at Izzy's and tries to build that argument for Izzy.

And one of you looks at Sophia's and builds that argument for Sophia.

And then come together and discuss.

Alternatively, you could independently look and decide which one you think is better.

Once you've done so, hit Play.

Excellent work there, everyone.

So it's a good idea that we focus on the key ideas and meanings in each poem instead of feature spotting.

So even though both points are valid, Sophia's is a much better topic sentence, 'cause she focuses on key ideas.

Leaves space to then analyse the language.

Whilst Izzy focuses on the second person pronouns from the very start, which means she's narrowing her view.

She's focusing on a method rather than the ideas.

So if we're thinking about how else we can think about "Poppies" and "Catrin" as similar or different, I want you to draw this Venn diagram, and I want you to populate it, thinking about what ideas they share in common.

Pause the video, have a go at doing that now.

You're gonna put some ideas in just the "Poppies" area or some ideas in just the "Catrin's" area.

And that middle section that overlap is going to be where you put their shared ideas, things that are really similar.

Pause the video, have a go at that, and when you're ready, hit Play.

Excellent work there, everyone.

So in terms of their shared ideas, we know that they explore parental relationships, and there's that interpersonal relationship and conflict.

We also know that both of them are actually retrospectives.

They look at the mother's memory, and they focus on a moment of separation.

"Poppies" though focuses more on internal conflict, whilst "Catrin" is more on the interpersonal conflict.

"Poppies" is about the mother being physically separated from her child, whilst "Catrin" is more looking at the emotional separation.

In "Poppies," there's a huge discussion of the ideas of grief, loss, loneliness, and worry, whilst "Catrin" is more looking at ideas of independence, love, taking action.

Pause the video, make sure you've got any of these notes when you need to.

Excellent work there, everyone.

So we're just gonna practise putting these ideas together.

We've seen what similarities and differences exist in the poems in terms of their key ideas.

I want you to plan your response to this question, how do the poets present relationships in "Catrin" and one other poem from the anthology by completing the essay plan.

So you can see there's an area for our thesis, which is considering comparing the purpose of each poem.

We then have our three topic sentences, which are each going to cover a different idea and be comparative whilst doing so.

You've then got your supporting detail where you'll put key evidence, language analysis, including structural and form analysis.

And also, you can put context in there as well.

A concluding sentence returns to that intention for each argument.

What is the idea that both poets are exploring, or is one poet exploring differently to another? And what is the poet's message in doing so? And in the conclusion, where we summarise our arguments and return back to that big overarching argument, that big writer's poets' message.

Pause the video, have a go at doing that.

And when you are ready, hit Play.

Excellent work there, everyone.

So here's how you could have compare the poems. In terms of the thesis, you could have said, "Well, both poems explore how maternal relationship can become distant over time.

In "Poppies," the separation is physical as the son leaves for war, whereas in "Catrin," the separation is more emotional, as the mother and child grow more independent from one another after the birth.

If you need to add any of these notes whilst we're going through, please do.

In terms of the topic sentence, we could have said, "Both poems explore the inner conflict associated with motherhood.

In particular, anxieties about children seeking independence from their mother." What I like here is we've got that comparative conjunction or comparative opener both.

And then we've got a really specific look at the inner conflict, the anxieties about children and seeking independence.

In terms of supporting detail, we've got a couple of quotes from each.

So we've got, from "Catrin" quote, rope, which could symbolise the umbilical cord but also remind the mother later in the poem the fact that it now symbolises the love and emotional connection between the mother and daughter.

But then in "Poppies", we've got the words "resisted" and "brave." Resisted being the fact that the mother doesn't want to let her son go but knows that she must.

And the adjective "brave" being the fact that she knows it's emotionally difficult for her to be separated from her son.

In terms of the concluding sentence, we could argue here that both poems explore the closeness and distance associated with maternal relationships.

The distance between the mother and the child in "Poppies" is a physical one, that the mother struggles to cope with, whereas in "Catrin," the distance is presented as emotional and symbolic.

So in that concluding sentence, we're really mining the difference between the two poems. I want you now to review your response.

We've just gone through an example.

I need you to make sure that you are also using clear comparative topic sentences that were linked to the question.

Supporting ideas which judiciously chosen evidence from the poem, providing detailed comparative analysis to showing the difference between each and why that's significant by looking at each poet's use of form, language, and structure, and using relevant context to strengthen your interpretations.

What do we know about each poet? Once you've done so, I want you to set yourself a WWW/EBI for next time you create a multiple paragraph outline.

Pause the video, give yourself that feedback.

Really turn those questions over.

Have a look back at the example that we just went through, because that hit all of these questions.

And once you've done so, hit Play.

Some excellent work there, everyone.

Some really conscientious reflection, which I know is going to help us a long way down the line.

I'm so impressed.

So let's just summarise our understanding of Clarke's "Catrin." "Catrin" is a personal poem reflecting Clarke's own relationship with her daughter.

It reflects the internal conflict parents face as their children grow.

Ultimately, there are clear comparisons to be made between "Poppies" and "Catrin," as both poems focused on parental conflict.

Whilst "Catrin" focuses on one conflict between parent and child, the message is a timeless one.

I hope you've really enjoyed looking at "Catrin" for the first time today.

I've really enjoyed going through it with you today, and I hope to see you again very soon.

Bye for now, everyone.