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1. Gwen Harwood Essay
MODULE B: GWEN HARWOOD
Opportunities for an individual to develop understanding of themselves stem from the experiences attained on their journey through life. The elements
which contribute to life are explored throughout Gwen Harwood's poems, At Mornington and Mother Who Gave Me Life, where the recollection of
various events are presented as influences on the individual's perception of the continuity of life. Both poems examine the connections between people
and death in relation to personal connections with the persona's father or mother. By encompassing aspects of human nature and life's journey,
Harwood addresses memories and relationships which contribute to one's awareness of life.
Memories and meandering thoughts, related to...show more content...
In Father and Child, as the persona moves on from childhood, her father becomes elderly and is entertained by simple things in nature, "birds, flowers,
shivery–grass." These symbols of nature remind the persona of the inconsistency of life and the certainty of death, "sunset exalts its known symbols of
transience," where sunset represents time. Both poems are indicative of the impermanence of life and that the persona has managed to mature and
grow beyond the initial fearlessness of childhood moving onto a sophisticated understanding of death.
The connection between life and death is expressed in a different way through Mother Who Gave Me Life, a poem of mourning for the dead. The
poem can be seen as a personal farewell to the persona's mother where the dominant images of the poem show evolution and the passing of time.
Father and Child also demonstrates the passing of time as the persona moves from the innocence of childhood to the sadness of her father's advancing
age and inevitable passing. In Mother Who Gave Me Life, the reference to Halley's Comet, which appears only once every seventy–six years, tells the
reader that the mother was unable to see it once more before surrendering to death. The direct speech of the Sister is reported without the use of
quotation marks as in, "When she died she was folding a little towel." This
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2. Gwen Harwood Essay
Gwen Harwood's poetry is very powerful for its ability to question the social conventions of its time, positioning the reader to see things in new ways.
During the 1960's, a wave of feminism swept across Australian society, challenging the dominant patriarchal ideologies of the time. Gwen Harwood's
poems 'Burning Sappho' and 'Suburban Sonnet' are two texts that challenge the dominant image of the happy, gentle, but ultimately subservient
housewife. Instead, 'Burning Sappho' is powerful in constructing the mother as violent to reject the restraints placed on her by society, whilst Suburban
Sonnet addresses the mental impact of the female gender's confinement to the maternal and domestic sphere. Harwood employs a range of language and
...show more content...
Instead, the alliteration of "pours prussic acid" presents sharp diction to emphasise the concept of violence in regards to the mother. As a result, the
reader is positioned to reassess the image of the caring, gentle mother, instead seeing the resulting emotionally repressed women as a direct reaction
to the constraints placed on her gender. Language and imagery plays a dramatic role in portraying relationships and feelings/thoughts of the
persona. Whilst in 'Burning Sappho,' the mother's attitude towards tasks is portrayed as emotionless ("the child is fed, the dishes are washed, the
clothes are ironed and aired,"), language is utilised within 'Suburban Sonnet' to construct the mother's mental state and situation as dire. "Zest and
Love drain out with soapy water." The use of two personal, passionate adjectives and the depiction of them being physically overcome by soapy
water directly link the mother's loss of feelings and fiery emotion to the household chores and duties. For example, she "scours crusted milk," as a
part of her role as mother and housewife as the reader is positioned to reject this requirement as a result of the huge impact to her quality of life
("Veins ache"). The literal image of a dead mouse symbolises the mother's situation as the 'soft corpse' directly represents the mother, that is,
emotionally dead as a result of the entrapment by society. The reader is positioned to fully
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3. Gwen Harwood
Born Gwendoline Nessie Foster on 8 June 1920 into a self–sufficient family that was full of music, philosophy, religion and language, Gwen had many
early influences in her childhood that were clearly going to have an effect on her later life. Gwen's family had strong connections with music and it
became a very important part of her life, causing her to aspire to become a musician. Gwen's grandmother introduced her to poetry and she began to
write her own in the 1950's. Soon after, she learnt the German language to establish a wider reading of poetry and involve the language in her own
works. Gwen married a linguist named William Harwood in 1945 and then moved around the Southern parts of Tasmania where she lived until her
death in December...show more content...
She reflects on a similar situation in the same poem that displays her selfishness, natural attachment to possessions and inability to share as a child,
"and knew I could slip in a k / or an i for a y and lose, / but did not, and sixty years / can't change it;" where she won a spelling prize and obtained her
"coveted, worthless prize." (Harwood, 2001, p.179).
Harwood also recalls events during her childhood that portray the blissful ignorance a child has and how things can innocently influence can change
them. "When I was a small child we lived in the country...and my friend Alice and I had a special cubby under the tank stand...there in which lived
the beautiful Queensland green frog, and they seemed to like us, we loved them, and we used to sit under there cuddling them in our hands and
talking to one another and listening to the people talking up on the veranda at the back...we had a continual stream of remarkable adult conversation.
We did not understand what much of it was about." (Melbourne Writers' Festival, 1992). 'The Secret Life of Frogs' is one of Harwood's most emotive
poems
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