Suburban Sonnet by Gwen Harwood Essay

The most obvious poetic devise of this poem is the rhyming scheme. Rhyming is when there is close similarity in the final sounds of two or more words or lines of writin.

“Blank Sonnet” by George Elliott Clarke is a sonnet expressing struggled communication with a lover through a broken relationship. This poem expresses communication struggles through the stylization that is atypical to a Shakespearean or Petrachin Sonnet. Clarke

Understanding a poet’s context can greatly shape a person’s understanding of their poetry. Australian poet Gwen Harwood (1920-1995) was born into a self-sufficient family full of music, philosophy and language. Harwood can be seen to draw inspiration from her lifelong influences, primarily music and her childhood, to shape her poems. The gentle meditation, The Violets, is an exploration of the existential concerns of the poet regarding the innocence and experience of childhood. The _____ Four Impromptus conveys ideas of the power of music and the human experience. Both poems display the personal themes of music, childhood innocence, human development and romanticism, reflecting these dominant experiences in Harwood’s personal life. By

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

Good afternoon and welcome to Poetry Week. Today I will be talking to you about the topic of urban life in Australian poetry. During this presentation, I will discuss the poem Tree in the City by Thomas Shapcott and its representation of urban life. This will then be followed by how the poetic devices of metaphor and imagery are used in the poem and finally, I will compare it to the taught poem Phasing Out the Mangroves.

    The poem is structured as a sonnet which commonly expresses a theme of love throughout the lines. Also it is paired with the “ABAB” rhyme scheme to give an emotional view to the readers about the conflict he has. Also the sonnet and the rhyme scheme is a common usage of poem making and many people know what it is, so the poet uses this structure to let readers understand more easily and clearly. He also uses the “ABAB” scheme to separate parts that are important within themselves. In the first four lines, it talks about the poet himself and how much he tries to avoid the one she loves by “ hold my louring head so low”(Line 2). In the next four lines, it talks about the mouse and how its problems relates with the poet’s emotional pain. After that, the next four lines talks about the fly and how it relates with the author with his physical pain. Using these methods help the poet communicate with the readers easily.

James Simmons’ poem ‘Sonnet for the Class of ‘58’ displays the conditions and society modern men live in. The poem develops its idea by giving examples of the graduates’ lives in adult world that is completely different from what they expected. As the speaker talks about how the ideal changes into only basic things in life, his words provoke the reader to think about their lives and compare them with their lives. The poem suggests the collapse of the ideal that young people have as they grow older and gain more experiences about reality of life.

“American Sonnet to my Past and Future Assassin” by Terrance Hayes is a modern American sonnet that focuses on a black man, struggling to comprehend his place in society. The speaker of the poem illustrates his dilemma through comparisons to the respected black musicians of the twentieth century to whom he feels a strong connection to. The tone of the sonnet is one of contemplation, or even uncertainty, as the speaker outlines his thoughts in reluctance, questioning himself and his audience.

Personification is used in dialogues like “I love the way they sail over traffic jams.” (p.34). The personification identified in this sentence had to deal with sailing, a verb, traffic jams, a non-living thing, because personification deals with a nonliving object that can use actions in a sentence and expresses that the things “sail” over traffic jams. Even though, sailing is only for boats. Imagery is used in as dialogues like “She had human features but her face was pale blue like a clear sky and just as bright. She was luminous. Her puffy blond cloud- shaped hair reminded me of golden cotton candy.” (p.36) to describe imagery by the looks of a noun very descriptively to get the reader thinking of how it looks like in reality to them.

Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Sonnet IV” follows many of the conventions of the traditional Petrarchan sonnet. It follows the traditional rhyming scheme and octet, sestet structure. However it challenges the conventions of the typical subject of the Italian sonnet, unrequited love. In the octet at the beginning of the poem Millay uses images that give a sense of transience and in the ending sestet of the sonnet she contrasts the sense of impermanence given earlier with the idea that the speaker cannot forget the smiles and words of their ex-lover. This contrast between permanence and transience illustrates Millay’s interest in a fugacious relationship with everlasting memories. After further analysis of Millay’s highly structured rhyming scheme which puts emphasis on the last words of each line. She uses these words to further express her interest in exploring impermanent relationships by using words that are associated with an end or death.

In the first stanza, the speaker talks of the toys that the girl had as a child, the baby doll, the little pretend stove, irons, little red lipsticks, they symbolized the type of work a woman would do (Line 2-4). In lines five through

The Poem portrays motherhood as monotonous and tiresome with her days mainly consisting of childcare tasks such as changing diapers. The mother in the poem feels like she has no spare time in her life. She is not able to do anything exciting or stimulating. The only moments where she feels she can do what she wants is the short time when her children are napping. The following is shown when the author uses imagery to express the women’s tiresome life. She references to “A doll slumped behind the door.” The mother is being compared to a doll, meaning that the doll has the same amount of energy as the mother. The author writes, “Other days she stared until she was assured when she closed her eyes she’d only see her own/vivid blood.” The woman

‘The Glasgow Sonnet No. 1’ is a poem written in third person. Morgan uses a Petrarch style; splitting the poem up into an octet and a sestet. The octet depicts the desolation of the Glaswegian area and the sestet goes into detail of what lies within these flats which are a key feature in conveying the level of poverty which grips this

The imagery shows the main point of the poem which is children going through a tough time when they are not supposed to and all they can do is cry at the moment. A symbolism that was found in the poem was the death of alice. The death of alice symbolize joy because Alice was able to escape the tough time children had to face. It says in line 54 “ death in life as best to have” this indicates that many of the children rather die because it is their only escape from child labor.

Family is evident in the poem ‘Rosie Joyce’. ‘Rosie joyce’ offers a positive view on family and belonging, high lighting how the arrival of a new baby can fill an entire family with joy: ‘Popping out my daughter, your mother/ Changing expressions on the faces all around you’. Her birth has a profound effect on the poet himself - relieving the terrible depression that dominated his life for years.