Harwood blends the intellectual with the emotional

Harwood blends the intellectual with the emotionalThe human condition is such that there are distinct contending principles that individuals seek to reconcile. Art is often an individuals response to their context and attempts to synthesise the dualities within the artist or their society and to communicate a resolution through creative faculties. This sense of constant negotiation with ones self through art is evident in the poetry of Gwen Harwood. In her poems, Harwood fuses binaries such as reason and emotion; certainty and ambiguity in order to deal with competing aspects of the self and engage in a new and harmonised perception of the present. Harwoods poem Triste, Triste tries to negotiate the contrasting passions of the physical and spiritual, while At Mornington conveys Harwoods strife to reconcile the finality of death with the fleeting nature of life. Harwood also unites the past and present in her poem The Violets: in order to reach a state of acceptance. Harwood's ability to combine opposing principles resonates with an audience searching for a united sense of self, transcending the context of her poetry and proving its endurance. In Triste, Triste, Harwood explores the tensions between the creative spirit and the limitations of the earth, a conflict between passion and lucidity which resonates with the internal conflicts in her audience. Harwood expresses a yearning for continued physical passion in the intermittent space between love and sleep. Harwood views this intangible time as an opportunity to transcend the prison of the heart. The poem is imbued with a strong sense of entrapment, with the body objectified as a stone; there is almost a necessity to escape the temporal and find a more spiritual intensity, reinforced by Harwoods allusion to the Christian resurrection.

The poem shifts explicitly away from the physical, transcending earthly reality Harwood contrasts the spiritual with the mortal, appeal ting the readers desire to possess a passionate, intrinsic other self, away from its tomb of bone. There is a divinity in the imagery pertaining to the creative spirit, a sublime perfection in the unbearable light where the persona reaches a state of euphoria likened to that of physical passion. Yet there is something divorced with the spirit walking alone, representing individual experience in the imaginative realm where there is no intimacy. Harwoods personification of the spirit allows it to move from the purely sentimental to a conceivable being that resonates with both the readers emotion and intellect.

While Harwood contrasts the imaginative and temporal selves, there is a recognition for the need to unify the two. At the height of inspiration, Harwood draws the reader back to the darkness of sleep and love, alerting us to the impossibility of sustaining such intensity in the imaginative realm. The use of emotive language conveys the urgency of reconnecting the two selves. Again there is a removal from the surreal with Harwood's use of dialogue which creates a sense of the present. The last stanza reunites the heart with creative passion, conveying the need for the heart to draw certainty from the temporal, and also the evanescence of inspiration as the spirits light is dispelled. However Harwood recognises and alerts the reader that the heart can only waken to peace if the creative self lies dormant. Harwood not so much blends as negotiates between the two worlds to reach a harmonious state. However the poem At Mornington conveys an evident strife to reconcile the opposing principles of life in the midst of grief. Harwood uses memory to fuse the past and the present which allows her to come to a realisation that there can be comfort in the thralls of grief. At Mornington confronts the reader with the ultimate paradox of transience and finality; life and death. There is a sombre, reflective tone as the persona and friend stand in silence amongst the avenues of the dead, which creates a need for solace to occur. Harwood's contrasts the stagnant marble and granite with the nature of memory fugitive as light in a sea-wet shell questioning the significance of memory in the process if grief and its role in consoling the present state of loss.

Memory is recalled to the persona in the form of childhood experience, where the persona desires to draw strength and certainty from her earlier conviction in her own power. However as she questions the role of memory Harwood speculates on its validity also as memory is influenced by the present and subject to emotion, emphasised by the uncertainty of seem[ing] to remember and the ambiguity of a father half comforting, half angry. The innocent belief that defying gravity was only a matter of balance is reflected in the personas present longing to transcend the gravity of death in airy defiance of nature. Harwood aligns herself with nature, with the metaphor of a pumpkin, blending her state of contemplation with the pastoral as the force of inevitability,; the cyclical time of life depresses her defiance. There is an intensity in the tone of despair, that by articulating through the language of poetry, Harwood also communicates a deeply personal yet ubiquitous emotion.

The poem returns to memory, though that of a dream through which the persona begins to recognise a means by which to reconcile transient life with death. The stanza is steeped in fertile imagery of day-bright flowers and water. The motif of water reappears, here symbolising not the overpowering force of death, but the sustenance of friendship. That there is still some water...enough to refresh is comforting, reshaping her perception of nature as progressing to inevitable loss. The raw emotion of the poem turns to a sober reflection where the persona thinks of death no more but is able to confront death through the experience of dreams, pain, memories, love and grief. From the contemplation of mortality emerges a serenity and acceptance inspired by unifying the inescapability of death with an appreciation of memory and friendship.

Likewise, in her poem The Violets, Harwood blends the emotion of grief with a reflection on memory in order to achieve a state of reconciliation. The first stanza depicts a melancholy setting where frail violets excite the personas recollection of a poignant childhood experience. The pathetic fallacy of the dusk, and cold atmosphere reflects the comfortless state of the persona, triggering empathy in readers who have experienced such a loss. Harwoods adult grief is mirrored by her juvenile outrage at the time which had been stolen from her, and like death, the loss of time is irreplaceable. However the child is ultimately reconciled by the sweetness of the personas parents, depicted through Harwoods use of domestic, homely imagery of the long hair and wood stove. There is a conviction in years cannot move that conveys a sudden awareness that memorys lamplit presences can in times of despair, be as real to individuals as the present, and so a source of solace. The idea of there being consolation in loss is one that will resonate with readers searching for relief, and the lingering scent of violets shows the longevity of memory and conveys it as eternal, continuing the presence of those physically lost.