Poetry Cluster Place: Analysis of Cold Knap Lake

Place: Cold Knap Lake
By Cora Hurley…read more

About the Author: Gillian Clark
· born in Cardiff in 1937
· She often writes about nature and her
observations of people.
· Her first poems were published in 1970; she
has since written three collections of poetry.
· She now works as a poet, freelance writer and
broadcaster and is a lecturer at the University
of Glamorgan…read more

Structure:
· The poem begins with confident and detailed
descriptions then changes to feelings of
confusion and uncertainty in the last stanza.
· This seems to represent the way we look back
on past events and try to make sense of them…read more

Form:
· The first person narrator appears to be the
poet herself.
· The sentences in the poem are long and the
poet uses enjambment ­ the last stanza has
only one sentence.
· This makes the poem sound like someone's
thoughts.…read more

Language (Notable Features):
· Dramatic language
· The poet's descriptions of how her mother revived the
girl makes the story sound almost too amazing to be
true. This might by why the poet wonders if she has
imagined it
· Philosophical Language
· The poet questions herself and wonders about how
memories work.
· The uncertain language in the last two verses adds to
the idea that things might not have actually happened
as she remembers them.
· She tries to come up with some answers to tie things
together…read more

Stanza One:
The girl's
covered in
pond weeds.
Sounds like The `silk'
she is dead
at this point
We once watched a crowd contrasts with
her `poor
Pull a drowned child from the lake.house'
Blue-lipped and dressed in water's long green silk
She lay for dead.…read more