In the Park Analysis

The reader cannot help but feel the burden the daughter will be sharing with the mother. And while the plight of the mother is real, the reader cannot ignore how the isolation and loneliness of this type of community, or lack there of, has effected Tome's judgment in mothering.

Whether you realise it or not, the act of representation is a constant and significant aspect of our lives. It defines and influences our perceptions of things in either a positive or negative way. One poem that I particularly admire from Harwood’s collection is ‘The violets’ , as it recognises the inevitable act of evolving without our childhood memories. The art of growing up and moving forward is only fully accomplished when we recognise and accept the experiences and explorations of our childhood. Harwood’s poetic style reflects her conservative, traditional and religious upbringing, as well as her interests in literature, philosophy and music. As one of Australia’s finest poets, and it is an honour to introduce Harwood’s latest poem anthology.

Letting go of the child whom one nourished from birth is challenging. When the mother senses her child drifting away and sees her child at the gateway to independence, who once ran to meet her when the she picked up from school, the mother is heartbroken and feels depressed. However, the mother’s love exceeds the bounds of anguish and disappointment. The mother considers what’s best for the child and “says nothing” when the child is making his or her own choices (54). Johnnie Dent Jr. once said, “As parents we have a tendency to be overprotective; it's okay to try and show them all positives, but we cannot forget that the real world has teeth” (Dent Jr.). This convoluted relationship and mother’s train of thoughts are carefully described through appropriate allusion, syntax, and symbols in the poem. As the poem suggests, silently watching the child make life choices and wishing the best for the child could be an effective parenting method for growth in the

TS - In the poem, “Mother who gave me Life”, Harwood explores the memory of motherhood as a quintessential part of being human.

Poets have the power to present their perspectives of the human experience through their poetic voice. Gwen Harwood, Judith Wright, and Bruce Dawe, all Australian poets have all expressed common ideas expressed by their unique poetic voice.They also speak for those who have no voice, such as the soldiers in Bruce Dawe’s poem Homecoming and in Gwen Harwood's poem Mother Who Gave Me Life where she gives a voice to the Mothers. A key theme resinating through all of these poets poems would be their common ideas on society and the role of a mother.

This is achieved in both poems through the use of a third person narrator. Again in both poems the narrator again is in the position of observing events. Bothe Dawe and Harwood use words like ‘his’, ‘she’, and ‘they’ this places the reader at a distance to the characters which creates the feeling that you have a greater knowledge overall than if it would forwardly just depict a single scene. Harwood uses present tense ‘ allowing the audience to make inferences on the past and future of the mother and her children. Dawe takes a different approach to this making the poem future tense implying that what is going on in the poem happens constantly and can now be predicted. Harwood also makes use of past tense ‘she loved once’ but reverts back to present tense ‘too late’ adding melancholy to the poem. Both poets effectively convey emotions experienced by people living on Australian land through the use of narrative

Harwood explore ideas concerning childhood innocence and experience through her poems, reflecting her deep interest in philosophy and the human experience. As a young contemporary reader, Harwood’s emphasis on the importance of childhood memories is particularly resonant, evoking the audience to reflect upon their own naïve recollections. This is also supported by the critic Hoddinott who stated that within Harwood’s body of work, “dreams of childhood have a particular power…perception of the truth with fear of the unknown” is also evident in “The Violets” where the importance of memories is explored as a reflection on an individual’s growth from naivety to experience. Harwood uses the rhetoric “Where’s morning gone?” in recognition of the carelessness exhibited in childhood

Plath starts her poem out negatively, ‘barely daring to breathe or Achoo’, with a distinct repetition of the ‘oo’ sounds in ‘Achoo’, ‘do’, ‘shoe’ and ‘du’ creating a childlike, nursery rhyme style of delivery that contrasts greatly with the violent and dark themes. Harwood begins on a significantly more positive if wistful note, ‘forgive me the wisdom I would not learn from you’ positioning her mother as a wise and positive influence. The tones of the poems are very different, as shaped by the poet’s experiences with their parents, with Harwood creating an affirmative, loving description of her relationship with her mother while Plath develops a much darker and sinister view s.

In the romantic era, British authors and poets focused on nature and its influence. Two of those poets, Charlotte Smith and William Wordsworth, wrote many pieces on the beauty of nature and their personal experiences with the beaches of England. In “Far on the sands” and “It is a beauteous evening,” Smith and Wordsworth describe their respective experiences on the shore at sunset. Both authors use structure, theme, allusions, and imagery to effectively convey their perceptions of nature. While the sonnets share a setting and the topics of nature and tranquility, Smith’s has a focus on introspection and Wordsworth’s is centered around religion. These have different focuses which achieve different effects on the reader.

Harwood revolves this poem around change, through the use of a motherly character she is able to construct a life style that has dramatically changed from free to a fairly constricted. Harwood uses the conversations of two people to get this message across, with the conversation discussing life’s progression with an old lover. “But for the grace of God…” suggests that the ex-lover is somewhat thankful for not ending up as a father figure to these children, as he can see the effect it has taken on her from when he used to know her. “Her clothes are out of date” shows her appearance has altered in the bid to live as a mother, her children are now her identity and that is what she will live to be. This poem is revolved around the negativity of losing yourself through mother-hood and the factors that slowly show that it.

In the park written by Gwen Harwood, was originally written under a male pseudonym. The poem represents the idea of changing identity because of certain circumstances as well as challenging common ideas, paradigms and values & beliefs which is commonly held amongst mothers in today’s society.

Furthermore, Harwood's poem 'In the Park' like Suburban Sonnet, focuses on the role of women in society and the negative nature of a domestic life, by challenging the reader to recognize a different force of motherhood. The women state that her children 'have eaten her alive'. The meaning of this statement symbolizes the choices she has made in her life have all revolved around her children. The hyperbole used to portray this statement creates a grotesque image for it graphically evokes ideas of cannibalism, further creating an image of desperation by showing the physical and emotional depletion children can place on adults. The women state her clothes are out of date which

Edna St. Vincent Millay’s sonnet, “I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed,” serves as an excellent example of a multi-faceted piece. From one angle, it is simply a Petrarchan sonnet, written with a slight variation on rhyme scheme – but that variation, taken deeper, reveals new layers of meaning. Added to Millay’s choice of meter and end-stop, along with a background of Millay’s person, this sonnet seems not so “simple” after all.

Another poem titled “The Author to Her Book” gives the reader the image of a baby being born. Bradstreet critics her works again and again seemingly portraying her works are not good enough. She refers to the “child” having blemishes and crippling handicaps that represents the deep faults and shortcomings in her work. Washing the child, rubbing off a blemish, and stretching its joints but failing to improve his imperfections all contribute to an image of Bradstreet rewriting her book. Dreadfully trying to increase the quality and standards in her work, the more imperfections she found. Towards the end of the poem Bradstreet talks about how she would give her ugly “child” new clothes and it just appears that her real life actions contradict her poem. She is actually very poor in life and could not afford new clothes thus sending her children away from the house.

In this stylistic analysis of the lost baby poem written by Lucille Clifton I will deal mainly with two aspects of stylistic: derivation and parallelism features present in the poem. However I will first give a general interpretation of the poem to link more easily the stylistic features with the meaning of the poem itself.