The Female Mind and the Manners of Swine
Jim Carruth
I have made little progress with Catharine since her arrival.
Though general health and bodily functions seem normal
she continues to tell us she is not a woman but a pig
should not have a bed in the asylum but reside in a sty.
Excited, irritable, incoherent in conversation
she regularly exhibits delusions on almost all subjects.
Often restless and noisy, frequently screaming
she continues to make the noises of the pig kind
while running about the floor on ‘all fours’
around the gallery and into the corners of rooms.
Terrified when spoken to, she avoids fellow patients,
grunting in her new found nature while talking to herself.
Refusing help, she tells us she’s undeserving of affection
instead that she is a beast unfit to be among decent folk
that she has ruined the lives of every person she knew
and should be taken into Glasgow and ‘made a show of.’
In recent weeks she has asked for arsenic to rid her of life
as her family should not pay for the maintenance of a pig.
I do not share this woman’s struggles with you to shock.
Tomorrow her husband will return and take her home.
(Catharine Glass was released from West House, Glasgow Royal Lunatic Asylum August 11th, 1848)
Commentary
The story of Catharine Glass and her stay at Gartnavel in 1848 immediately grabbed my attention as even now in our supposed more enlightened times hers is the type of case over which our media would have a field day.
My poetry to date has constantly explored what it means to be human. Many of the poems focus on individuals and their relationship with themselves, others and the environment and circumstances they find themselves in. This continued interest drew me to Catharine as the particular focus of my poem.
One of my first poems was ‘The Man who Wanted to Hug Cows.’ This definitely resonated with people and was published among other places in the anthology 100 Favourite Scottish Poems edited by Stewart Conn and recorded for The Poetry Archive. The poem originally appeared in 2004 in my first chapbook Bovine Pastoral and focusses on mental health and how society views it. The poem itself is based on someone I knew – Thomas Milne, a fellow writer at my local writers’ group who had suffered a breakdown. The poem’s title hints at the pointed humour which can accompany those with health challenges, and this was something I also wanted to pick up on with my poem on Catharine Glass. That early poem gave me the chance to challenge our own responses to mental ill health in what we say (‘seemed harmless enough’) and how we react (‘watched him closely,’ ‘uneasy at the nervousness of the stranger’).
Eventually ‘The Man who Wanted to Hug Cows’ is about acceptance – finding a place where we can feel at home. ‘A smile in the herd,’ and have a sense of peace.
‘his head resting on thick-hared warmth
lulled by the rise and fall of maternal ribs
the beat of a larger heart’
Catharine Glass unfortunately does not reach that same place of comfort and belonging during her time at Gartnavel Asylum, and we worry for what might have happened to her after her time there. I wanted the poem to challenge ourselves in what we might find amusing or shocking. The poem sticks very closely to the medical records to capture the doctor’s own thoughts on her condition and in turn hopefully provides a challenge to us all.
[Patient record for Catharine Glass, HB13/5/79]
Born in 1963 in Johnstone, Jim Carruth grew up on his family’s farm near Kilbarchan. His first collection Bovine Pastoral came out in 2004 and was the first in a series of five chapbooks exploring the changing rural landscape of Renfrewshire known as ‘The Haltered Chronicles’. In 2009 he was awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship. His work has attracted both praise and awards, including the McLellan Poetry Prize and the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award. His verse novella Killochries, originally published in 2015, was shortlisted for the Saltire Society Scottish Poetry Book of the Year, the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry Prize and the Fenton Aldeburgh Prize for first collection. His most recent book, Far Field, came out in 2023 and is the final part of the Auchensale trilogy. He is the co-founder and current chair of St Mungo’s Mirrorball, the Glasgow network of poets, and has been the poet laureate of Glasgow since 2014.
The Female Mind and the Manners of Swine
Jim Carruth
I have made little progress with Catharine since her arrival.
Though general health and bodily functions seem normal
she continues to tell us she is not a woman but a pig
should not have a bed in the asylum but reside in a sty.
Excited, irritable, incoherent in conversation
she regularly exhibits delusions on almost all subjects.
Often restless and noisy, frequently screaming
she continues to make the noises of the pig kind
while running about the floor on ‘all fours’
around the gallery and into the corners of rooms.
Terrified when spoken to, she avoids fellow patients,
grunting in her new found nature while talking to herself.
Refusing help, she tells us she’s undeserving of affection
instead that she is a beast unfit to be among decent folk
that she has ruined the lives of every person she knew
and should be taken into Glasgow and ‘made a show of.’
In recent weeks she has asked for arsenic to rid her of life
as her family should not pay for the maintenance of a pig.
I do not share this woman’s struggles with you to shock.
Tomorrow her husband will return and take her home.
(Catharine Glass was released from West House, Glasgow Royal Lunatic Asylum August 11th, 1848)
Commentary
The story of Catharine Glass and her stay at Gartnavel in 1848 immediately grabbed my attention as even now in our supposed more enlightened times hers is the type of case over which our media would have a field day.
My poetry to date has constantly explored what it means to be human. Many of the poems focus on individuals and their relationship with themselves, others and the environment and circumstances they find themselves in. This continued interest drew me to Catharine as the particular focus of my poem.
One of my first poems was ‘The Man who Wanted to Hug Cows.’ This definitely resonated with people and was published among other places in the anthology 100 Favourite Scottish Poems edited by Stewart Conn and recorded for The Poetry Archive. The poem originally appeared in 2004 in my first chapbook Bovine Pastoral and focusses on mental health and how society views it. The poem itself is based on someone I knew – Thomas Milne, a fellow writer at my local writers’ group who had suffered a breakdown. The poem’s title hints at the pointed humour which can accompany those with health challenges, and this was something I also wanted to pick up on with my poem on Catharine Glass. That early poem gave me the chance to challenge our own responses to mental ill health in what we say (‘seemed harmless enough’) and how we react (‘watched him closely,’ ‘uneasy at the nervousness of the stranger’).
Eventually ‘The Man who Wanted to Hug Cows’ is about acceptance – finding a place where we can feel at home. ‘A smile in the herd,’ and have a sense of peace.
‘his head resting on thick-hared warmth
lulled by the rise and fall of maternal ribs
the beat of a larger heart’
Catharine Glass unfortunately does not reach that same place of comfort and belonging during her time at Gartnavel Asylum, and we worry for what might have happened to her after her time there. I wanted the poem to challenge ourselves in what we might find amusing or shocking. The poem sticks very closely to the medical records to capture the doctor’s own thoughts on her condition and in turn hopefully provides a challenge to us all.
[Patient record for Catharine Glass, HB13/5/79]
Born in 1963 in Johnstone, Jim Carruth grew up on his family’s farm near Kilbarchan. His first collection Bovine Pastoral came out in 2004 and was the first in a series of five chapbooks exploring the changing rural landscape of Renfrewshire known as ‘The Haltered Chronicles’. In 2009 he was awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship. His work has attracted both praise and awards, including the McLellan Poetry Prize and the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award. His verse novella Killochries, originally published in 2015, was shortlisted for the Saltire Society Scottish Poetry Book of the Year, the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry Prize and the Fenton Aldeburgh Prize for first collection. His most recent book, Far Field, came out in 2023 and is the final part of the Auchensale trilogy. He is the co-founder and current chair of St Mungo’s Mirrorball, the Glasgow network of poets, and has been the poet laureate of Glasgow since 2014.