Often in poetry the technique of imagery is relied on heavily to present the reader with a visual stimulus that allows the poet to express a set of complex ideas. Poet Gwen Harwood utilises certain everyday images to illustrate the tendency of society to categorize the roles and expectations of females in the 1950’s.
Some of her works such as ‘In the Park’, ‘Suburban Sonnet’ and ‘Dichterlibre’ draw on images of bickering children, household chores and tiresome motherly figures in order for the reader grasp some of the intangible concepts presented in the poems, such as the struggle for female independence in a patriarchal society and the social inequity experienced by the housewives and mothers of the 50’s. Harwood’s poetry gives voice to these drained women and entices the reader to take notice of the restrictions placed on a young mother by society’s expectations.
Harwood’s poem ‘In the Park’ explores the exhausting and all-consuming task of motherhood and the effects that slowly take toll on a mother’s vitality. Throughout the first stanza Harwood uses everyday imagery to give the reader insight into the exhausted nature of the mother. Harwood offers the reader simple yet expressive imagery in line one of the poem, when a mother’s clothes are described as “out of date”, this imagery presents the clothes to the reader as a symbolic view of the woman’s attitude towards her life which is now seen as old, tattered and worn out, not unlike her clothing.
The Term Paper on Gwen Harwood Sonnet Suburban Poem
... poem's message of motherhood and the sacrifices required of women as wives and mothers. This period of Gwen Harwood's ... Suburban Sonnet, the she manages to use imagery and a disjointed rhythm to create a ... a musical deftness. The mundane events presented in the poem examine a more complex perspective on ... lust and adoration often abound. Here, the reader is given a domestic picture including bouts ...
After the first line the reader is left with an impression of the mother as being immersed in the past dwelling on the contrast between how her life could have been, and the mundane reality that has come to pass. When the children are introduced into the text the reader is invited into a part of the mother’s life that Harwood presents as a draining, somewhat parasitic addition, where as traditionally the sacred relationship between mother and child is one of great value.
The image of two children that “whine and bicker, tug at her skirt” allows the reader into the tedious life of the 1950’s mother that Harwood wishes to represent. Once the reader has been made aware of the perpetual duties that engulf this mother’s life, Harwood begins to draw attention to the routine social facade put on by the mother when she runs into an old lover in the park. Language such as “rehearsed” and “et cetera” are employed by Harwood to invoke connotations of tiresomeness and help develop the image of a woman drained with the life hat she has come to lead. The image of this conversation consisting of little more than everyday small-talk gives the reader an impression of a life filled with monotony where not even the stirring concept of a surprise reunion can spur this broken woman into excitement. Upon conclusion of the woman’s encounter with her ex-lover, Harwood leaves the reader with an image that is left burning in the reader’s mind. To the wind she says, they have eaten me alive” This image of a woman whose collapse is recognised by no one but the wind enforces the reader to make the connection between the woman’s physical day-to-day duties and the intangible concept of a draining inequity in society towards mothers and housewives. In Harwood’s work “Suburban Sonnet” the poet presents the reader with a motherly figure whose dreams and ambitions have been significantly hindered by the suffocation of motherhood and housewifery.
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The abundance of daily images in a suburban 1950’s household aid in the construction of a visual connection in the reader’s mind, allowing the poet to explicate the asphyxiating corollaries of motherhood. Harwood presents the reader with a motherly figure whose aspirations as a musician have been smothered by motherhood and her household duties. “She practices a fugue, though it can matter to no one now if she plays well or not. These opening lines also inform the reader of the lack of recognition received by the woman, whose efforts in music are futile and unproductive, as it matters not as to how well she can play as long as her domestic chores are completed. Harwood uses emotive description and everyday imagery to allow the audience to experience exactly what the woman is feeling. “A pot boils over. As she rushes to the stove too late, a wave of nausea overpowers. ” This image creates an allusion to the intangible concept of the accumulating pressure that a housewife would be subject to.
The poet also emphasises on the aspirations and desires forfeited by the woman in favour of her relentless household tasks and obligations as the “Zest and love drain out with soapy water as she scours the crusted milk. ” Harwood then depicts a mouse that lay dead in a sprung mouse trap a common household occurrence that symbolises the crushed hopes and dreams held so dearly by the woman, but have fallen by the wayside due to her requirements. The mouse is representation of the mother, who is stuck in a trap and is unable to break free.
Harwood uses this symbolism to express the link between the woman’s commonplace duties and the intangible thematic concern, that her life has become engulfed by domestic obligations and child rearing. Similar to “In the Park” and “Suburban Sonnet”, “Dichterliebe” addresses the concerns of a bitter and unhappy wife as she describes her husband’s physical and mental freedom from the realities of married life, a freedom that she is unable to share due to the pressures put on her by society at the time.
The persona presents her husband as a somewhat parasitic feature of her life, draining her of vivacity and rudely exposing the intimate details of their daily life. “He’ll tell with stylish Angst of course, the inmost secrets of our bed. ” The persona also resents the opportunities available to her husband that cannot be accessed by her due to the necessary chores of keeping a house and family “(To him) the world lies wide, and warm. ” There is also a sense of injustice in the relationship in that the things which keep the persona locked down and restricted do not apply to her husband “No kiss, no child, no prayer will keep him here. In the last stanza Harwood drives home the social inequity of the relationship as she presents the reader with contrasting images between the domestic chores completed by her and the pensive daydreaming of her husband. “I’ll wash the floors. He’ll watch the stars. I’ll salt his life with common sense. ” These images offer the reader visual stimulus to appreciate the link between the physical mundane tasks of housewifery and the gender inequality that they encompass.
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Comparing Poems. "Woman Work" & "Overheard in County Sligo." The two poems I have been studying are "Woman Work" by Maya Angelou and "Overheard in County Sligo" by Gillian Clarke. The main subject the poets are talking about is the day to day life of two women; one a black woman in the southern states of America and the other an Irish woman from "the lap of the land" in county Sligo. There is ...
This notion is reinforced in the last line of the poem when the persona elucidate the injustice after contrasting the images of work and her husband’s detachment from adult responsibility the reader is left feeling as if the persona is being worked to the bone whilst her daydreaming husband will “…die of drink and candy bars. ” The imagery used by Gwen Harwood in these three poems may be simplistic upon first inspection, but the complex ideas that can be drawn from these images are far from simple.
The situations and images constructed by Harwood allow the reader to comprehend the inequity experienced by mothers and housewives. The intangible issues that are addressed by these poems are well aided by the basic images of a housewife’s chores and the connection they create between the two concepts. This allows the reader to not only understand but visualise the intangible burden these positions can bestow upon a young mother and their propensity to suffocate a woman’s dreams and aspirations.
