Gwen Harwood Essay

Gwen Harwoods poetry is rattling powerful for its ability to drumhead the amicable conventions of its time, positioning the reader to see things in new ways. During the 1960s, a wave of feminism swept across Australian society, challenging the predominant patriarchal ideologies of the time. Gwen Harwoods verses intent Sappho and suburban Sonnet are two texts that challenge the dominant image of the happy, gentle, solely ultimately subservient housewife.Instead, ruin Sappho is powerful in constructing the acquire as violent to reject the restraints lay on her by society, whilst Suburban Sonnet addresses the mental impact of the feminine genders confinement to the maternal and house servant sphere. Harwood employs a contrive of spoken language and structural devices in order to criticise the conventional quash roles of the female gender. Thus Harwood encourages the sophisticated reader to perceive Australian social structures differently and hence reject the inequitable role of women in modern society.Structure is used in many of Harwoods poems to challenge the dominant perceptual experience of the happy, caring start out. In Suburban sonnet, the structure is (obviously) the sonnet, two four telephone circuit stanzas followed by a six-line stanza. This choice is deliberate as the traditional romanticised hump poem jars against the reality presented in the poem. Similarly, burn mark Sappho challenges the dominant stereotypes of the time however, quite than a sonnet, the poems structure is also relevant to the poems criticisms, thus revealing a duality in the mothers actions and inner thoughts.Throughout the day, the mother is constantly interrupted by her hypothetical duties and roles. Scandals and Pregnancies mediates that the women (a kind friend) talk, however the subject of the conversation presents a typecast of stereotypical gossip, therefore positioning the reader to perceive their conversation as wanting substance. In contrast to t his stereotype however, the personas thoughts are late private and challenging to the reader. Vivid tomography of a monster grin(ning) and stick(ing) her barbarian with pins conflicts with the stereotype of the loving mother.Instead, the alliteration of pours prussic acid presents sharp diction to underline the concept of violence in regards to the mother. As a termination, the reader is positioned to assess the image of the caring, gentle mother, instead seeing the resulting emotionally suppress 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 mothers attitude towards tasks is portrayed as emotionless (the sister is fed, the dishes are washed, the clothes are ironed and aired,), language is utilized at heart Suburban Sonnet to construct the mothers mental subject and situation as dire. Zest and Love drain out with sebaceous water. The use of two personal, passionate adjectives and the depiction of them being physically cut across by soapy water directly link the mothers loss of feelings and fiery emotion to the household chores and duties.For example, she scours crusted milk, as a government agency of her role as mother and housewife as the reader is positioned to reject this requirement as a result of the considerable impact to her quality of life (Veins ache). The literal image of a dead mouse symbolises the mothers situation as the loopy corpse directly represents the mother, that is, emotionally dead as a result of the entrapment by society.The reader is positioned to fully sympathise with the mother in her repressed position and thus question the stereotypical contented mother augur that is compartmentalised to the domestic sphere of Patriarchal society. Both poems suggest that their oblige social roles of women as mothers and housewives come at the cost of career opportunities an d personal aspirations. Music and writing, in particular, are significant, as Harwood believed they played an integral part in emotions and peace of the mind. She practices a fugue though it can way out to no one not whether she plays thoroughly or not. The fugue in musical terms is a piece of repetitive writing that is utilised by Harwood to suggest a form of monotony and recurrence. As well as this, the negative alliteration of the words, No, not and now can be linked to the repression of the mothers ability to play the piano. The persona is render as a good pianist within the poem, reflecting Harwoods aver skills on the instrument.However, due to her femininity, the persona is unable to pursue her career. Similarly, in Burning Sappho, the repetition of the persona writing (I pick up my write and start to write) across the four stanzas emphasises the mothers film for creative and emotional release. The construction of the children in both poems is also submissive in repres enting the social expectation of the home mother, rather than worker. In Suburban Sonnet, imagery collusive with the children such as Chattering and then utter is very stressful and negative.In contrast, the diction and language in Burning Sappho is terrible to the reader as the poem not only depicts a very difficult child in contrast to the stereotypical innocent construction, but the mothers relationship with her is fragmented Something like hatred forks betwixt my child and me. Clear negative diction is used to challenge these stereotypes of the mother/child relationship, therefore challenging the views of society, which dictate that women must look later their children rather than pursue a career.Through the use of poetic structure and language in Burning Sappho and Suburban Sonnet, Gwen Harwood challenges established patriarchal ideas in regards to the domestic sphere of women as housewives and mothers. Her powerful voice and rhetoric is key to her dividing line and cons equently I am positioned to readdress my perception of these particular groups in society, sympathising with the bulwark of gender roles and therefore challenging the further implementation of them on Australian Society.