Gwen Harwood essay by Joshua Quealy

The poetry of Gwen Harwood operates on a multitude of levels and perspectives as she explicitly and implicitly explores universal notions concerning the mystery of the human soul in its search for a sense of identity. Her poems appeal to responders by exploring a myriad of thematic concerns including the dichotomies of life, perpetual connection between Eros and Thanatos (life and death) and the transience of time. This is evident in her poems Father and Child (1953, F&C) and Prize Giving (1959, PG) which are representative of her overall work. Written during the 1950 and 60s, her work is indicative of her childhood context and influences such as 18th Century Romanticism and the 20th C philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Her poems can be appreciated from a variety of interpretations including a Marxist, Religious and Feminist perspective through techniques such as ....

Harwood was a Romanticist, with her repertoire of poems focusing on the dichotomies of life. In FNC, Harwood segments the poem into two symmetrical parts to explore the changing relationship between the father and child. In Barn Owl the child is literally described as a horny fiend, denoting her devilish capabilities. However, through a role reversal in Nightfall, she becomes afraid when the child sees her fathers imminent death now the season that seemed incredible is come. Similar to other modernist like Virginia Woolf, she uses the poem to try to come to terms with human existence such as the inevitability of death. On the other hand, in PG she explores the dichotomies of life through the antithesis between femininity and masculinity. The Professor is juxtaposed to the host and students through the alliteration, superb in silk. However, the titian hair girl seizes control of the situation through provocative sexual gestures in truncated sentences such as hitched at a stocking and winked at nearby friends. The girls portrayal was largely a result of her upbringing in Queensland in which her mother was an independent feminist.

Through intertextuality, Harwood is able to explore themes such as the transience of time. In FNC, she directly quotes King Lear (Act IV, sc 6) Be your tears wet? to examine the passing of time as the father is confronting his mortality. Furthermore, she conveys the fathers fragility through the musical allusion, You speak as if air touched a string near breaking-point. The reference to the violin and music in general, is a pervasive and constant motif in all her work that was influenced by her strong musicianship as a child. On the other hand, PG shares an intertextual relationship with Mozart as the girl plays the piano with passion and despair. Through enjambment, she explores the transience of time through Eisenbarts transformation. From having rudely declined out of arrogance, evocative terminology is used in the poems last lines when he peered into a trophy which suspended his image upside down to show how he has become entrapped.

Father and Child can be appreciably interpreted through a Religious perspective, a contextual relationship of her Christian religious upbringing. Through imagery of the child as obedient and angelic, she alludes the child to the myth of Eve in Genesis, but like Eve, the child succumbs to temptation as whose law would punish. This interpretation is largely a result of her strong interest in Wittgenstein, a German Philosopher and his belief that the logical discourse frequently used to describe the world and its happenings was inadequate when applied to the region beyond temporal existence, i.e. religion. Furthermore, Harwood uses the poems diptych structure to echo not only thematic divisions such as life and death, but the parabolic tale of the Prodigal Son. Through descriptive language the child turns her back on her father, let him dream of a child obedient, yet she paradoxically returns to him as my stick-thin comforter. Finally, the lack of a personal female pronoun was intentionally chosen as Harwood intended this poem to be seen as a parable, a word she mentions herself in At Mornington.

In PG a Marxist reading would highlight the power struggle between the different societal classes, namely the Professor, the head mistress and the girl. Through contrast, Harwood alludes the Professor to the position of Rodins Thinker to emphasise his intellectual snobbery in comparison to the head mistress who is humbler in black. This is a contextual result of the patriarchal society Harwood lived in and refutes the notion of an egalitarian society. Although inferior to the narcissistic Professor in terms of education, gender and age, the girl establishes a sense of dominance over him when she receives her award through the metaphor, he took her hand and felt its voltage fling his hold. Their roles are reversed as he becomes diminished in status, evident through his oxymoronic description as sage fool.

On the other hand, PG can be interpreted through a Feminist reading. The Professor views the young female students as a collective group opposed to individuals as he shook/ indifferently to their monotonous sea of Blonde, black, mouse-brown. In the poems conclusion, imagery of the professor who is trapped by music in a copper net of hair draws on the negative connotations associated with net. It implies that he has become trapped, with the intention of the girl to ensnare him. This Feminist reading mirrors the growing liberalisation of women during Harwoods post WWII context. This Feminist interpretation can also be applied to FAC through the power struggle in the antagonistic relationship between the father and daughter. Unlike Cordelia in King Lear, who is sacrificed at the end of the play, the daughter in Barn Owl is extremely authoritative; I knew my prize. She survives the poem, a significant feat considering the marginalisation of women in the majority of texts. Finally, the word prize refers to the owl. However, some feminist critics may argue that the owl is a feminine trait and that the use of the prize is a metonym for her virginity.

Conclusion

Responders learn from her experiences and context. E.g. Romanticism, feminism.

the deepest mystery...is nowhere else but here (poetry) (Robert Gray).