Imagery in the Poem

Imagery in the poem | Example of image | | The poem begins in the labour ward of the hospital: it is 'hot, white ' (line 2) and sterile, which seems at odds with the intimate event that is about to occur. Further on it is seen as 'a square / Environmental blank ' (line 9) and a 'glass tank ' (line 19). Why do you think Clarke places so much emphasis on the hospital building? | | Before the actual birth, Clarke looks out of the window at 'The people and cars ' (line 4) going about their every day business; she, in contrast, is about to experience one of the most momentous events of her life. Why do you think she mentions 'the traffic lights ' (line 5)? | | 'The tight / Red rope of love ' (line 8) is the umbilical cord. It is red because of the blood that flowed between the mother and the child in the womb; but also because red is the colour of passion and love. Red contrasts with the stark, white hospital surroundings. | | Mother and child 'fought over ' (line 9) the cord. The verb fought suggests the brutality and pain of childbirth. Perhaps Clarke is marvelling at how love is created through violence. | | 'I wrote / All over the walls with my / Words ' (line 11). Are these words Clarke 's shouts and screams of pain, or are they words of a poem she thinks of through her labour? She imagines the words colouring 'the clean squares ' (line 13) of the hospital. Decide whether you think the coloured words would deface the hospital 's clean walls, or give them new life and vibrancy. | | 'The wild tender circles ' perhaps refer to the waves of contractions in the lead-up to the birth. Contractions get closer and closer together as moment of birth nears, as the circles of ripples on a pond are closest to the point where a stone is dropped in. The mother and child shouted (line 16). Was this in pain or joy? Or perhaps both? | | Both Clarke and Catrin were changed (line 20) by the birth: Clarke became a mother, someone upon whom a tiny baby