Suburban Sonnet Gwen Harwood Essay

In exploring this poem the tone of the opening line – “Abortions will not let you forget” – can be viewed as regretful and as offering a kind of warning. As we move through the poem the tone of line four, might be called literally imaginative, as she say; “The singers and workers that never handled the air”. While in lines 5-6 the tone seems at first brutally honest and realistic and then affectionate and realistic. As she continues to lines 7-10, as well as in many lines of this poem, the mother expresses herself as a person who is fully familiar with all the small, subtle realities of parenting. She even expresses her attitudes toward her abortions even more complex.

A mother and a child. A love that transcends no bounds. To give up a child leaves a hole that nothing can fill. An empty abyss. In the heat of the moment, the mother is convinced that she is doing right by the child. Giving that child a life that they themselves will not be able to give. It hurts to leave, but they know deep down, that the sacrificing of their happiness for the child’s well-being is what is best. In the photograph Mother and child by Jerome Liebling, the mother stands, child in arms, before the steps. Before the steps of giving up the one piece of joy she has in her life. Holding a blank expression on her face, trying not to show any emotion as it would only make what she is about to do harder. She is tired, worn down by the weight of the world. Contemplating what she is about to do, although she knows it will not help.

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.

Some discoveries may be the result of significant experiences that one undergoes. In moving on from these experiences, the discoveries can be provoked and have the ability to open the eyes of individuals. Gwen Harwood’s “Father and Child” explores the growth and maturation of a child. Harwood shows the juxtaposition between innocence and maturity and the way that discovering this deepens the perception one has of the world. The

The main theme within Clarke’s Sonnet is his distance and inability to communicate with a lover due to his alcoholism, and the way in which his coping mechanism, and alcoholism affects this relationship. In the opening octet,

Sylvia Plath and Gwen Harwood tell two very different stories of parental relationships, Mother Who Gave Me Life praising Harwood’s mother and speaking with love and affection, whereas Plath’s Daddy is full of hate for her father. These reflections on the poet’s parental relationships are made using imagery, symbolism and tone.

Gwen Harwood, a contemporary female poet, born in Brisbane Australia in the 1920 's, wrote her poetry during a time where Australian society held dominant gender ideologies that focused on domesticating women. A widely held belief of a passive, nurturing mother figure who looked after her children and complied with her duties as a 'house-wife ', whilst men were viewed as the sole source of income and had a minimal nurturing role with children, was shared, along with ideas of male superiority, and of masculine qualities being superior to feminine qualities, both of which were only expected to be embodied by males and females respectively. The construction of people, places and institutions through poetic conventions in Harwood 's poetry allows the audience to identify these cultural beliefs in conventional gender roles and expectations within 1950 's Australian society in particular. These constructions critique the attitudes and values of the time, especially where women are concerned, and thus position the audience to reject the patriarchal assumptions of the time. Her poems Suburban Sonnet and Prize Giving are can be perceived as radical interpretations and criticisms of the views of the time they were written in, and attest to Harwood 's own beliefs of female independence and placing value on feminine and masculine roles and qualities equally. Harwood grew up with the main female figures in her life being her mother and grandmother, who were both very independent; her

Gwen Harwood’s poetry endures to engage readers through its poetic treatment of loss and consolation. Gwen Harwood’s seemingly ironic simultaneous examination of the personal and the universal is regarded as holding sufficient textual integrity that it has come to resonate with a broad audience and a number of critical perspectives. This is clearly evident within her poems ‘At Mornington’ and ‘A Valediction’, these specific texts have a main focus on motif that once innocence is lost it cannot be reclaimed, and it is only through appreciating the value of what we have lost that we can experience comfort and achieve growth.

Poetry is an art form that has been used to express certain messages or beliefs, and can potentially change a reader’s view on a subject. Suburban Sonnet, written by Gwen Harwood has a lot of social commentary and is speaking to you about a lot of things that it feels are important. It is looking to make a lot of points about Australian society and the sacrifice of having children and of living a suburban lifestyle. Gwen Harwood’s ‘Suburban Sonnet’ is a fourteen line poem with strong values of urban Australia.

Both Suburban Sonnet by Gwen Harwood and Homo Suburbiensis by Bruce Dawe, explore the everyday life of people living in the suburbs. While both poems are sonnets and explore similar themes, each poet uses different techniques in doing so. Suburban Sonnet is from the point of view of a mother who is portrayed in the third person. Like Suburban Sonnet, Homo Suburbiensis also uses third person to portray the characters, but unlike Suburban Sonnet, Homo Suburbiensis is in the point of view of a man. Both poems are in the third person and are written form the view of an omniscient narrator.

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.

In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by

Like the majority of children, the mother’s unhappy and discontented state affects the son too. The physical boxes in his mother’s house affect the son as much as the mother. As he says after describing how the boxes are piled up in the mother's house, “[t]his is no way for anyone’s mother to live” (583). Furthermore, the son notices that his mother has problems, “She kept on moving. I suggested once that she go to a psychiatrist” (585). The fact that the mother has gone crazy also takes a toll on the son, as Jill points out, “[y]ou’re driving him crazy. He’s going crazy with worry over you” (589). Fortunately, the son seems to live a balanced life; however, his mother “...is all the family he has left” (588) and he can’t bear to see his mother live

This poem is about losing a friend. Without her friend, the speaker is deprived of happiness. Even when the speaker laughs or smiles, it is faked. The speaker was affected so much that breathing became a burden. Initially, they were elated but soon, it turned into a path with a bitter end. “Kiss of death” is a phrase, which refers to something that causes failure. The turn at the ending couplet shows the speaker’s reflection that there is no point in feeling nostalgic, as she cannot change the past.