Essay 3

Nathan Gallagher - Gwen Harwood Poetry Essay 82007

Nathan Gallagher - Gwen Harwood Poetry Essay 82007

English EssayMonday, 22nd October2007

Despite differing responses to text over time, ultimately the structure and style of a text is significant in evaluating its success.

Discuss this statement evaluating the structure and poetic techniques of at least TWO poems by Harwood. Gwen Harwoods Poetry

Through studying Gwen Harwoods poetry and considering the various readings which highlight values of the context to which they belong, I have come to an understanding that she engages readers personally, making alternate readings and responses possible. There are numerous aspects of Harwoods poetry which make it worthy of critical study, including perennial themes, Harwoods ability as a composer to effectively use form, structure and language techniques, the poetrys distinctive qualities and also the rich nature of the values presented in her poetry. Despite the differing responses to her poetry over time, it is ultimately the unique structure and style of Harwoods writing that adds significance to her poetry, thus contributing to its success. Harwoods skill as a composer to explore different structures and poetic techniques is a major contributor to the success of her work, for it allows a variety of different readings to be applied. The Glass Jar consists of seven stanzas, all six lines long, enabling the responder to easily follow the story which unfolds, and facilitates in the development of their own unique reading of the poem. The first four lines of each stanza are in iambic tetrameter, whilst the last two lines are longer and are iambic pentameter couplets, giving an effect of a conclusion to the end of each stanza. However, the last stanza of the poem differs in structure from the rest of the poem; consisting of three lines of iambic tetrameter, followed by two lines of iambic pentameter and then concluding the stanza and thus poem with one line of iambic tetrameter. This change in structure not only adds a conclusion to the entire poem, but also places greater emphasis upon the crumpled scarf a metonym for the childs deflated spirit due to the loss of innocence not only because the glass jar doesnt retain light but also as he finds his mother faithless and would not turn her face. This structure is varied towards the end of the poem, when Harwood uses enjambment to add fluency and inevitability to her poem through the statement; Once more/to bed, and to worse dreams he went. This is extremely effective as it helps to portray the severity of the situation the boy faces, as the responder, without pause, is made aware of what is happening, whilst relaying the extent of the boys fear and desperation. Harwood uses run-on stanzas and the regular rhyme patterns to show the complexity of the childs plight to gain respite from the monsters of the night. This unique form is interwoven with a simple rhyme scheme of ABBACC, which uses childish words such as bed, fled, dreamed and screamed where Harwood establishes an innocent tone, and provides a direct link to childhood nursery rhymes, furthermore illuminating the theme of innocence being tarnished by experience. There is a conscious cleverness in Harwoods choice of words in The Glass Jar, as a word or phrase is able to be interpreted in various ways to suit the responders ideologies; such as the light imagery; this pulse of light beside his bed and resurrected sun to depict the childs innocence and naivety if, seen from a psychoanalytical perspective, whereas in a religious interpretation, light can be seen as holy, or as a gaining of insight/knowledge or even as an allusion to God. Harwoods clever use of poetic techniques continues throughout the poem, enabling a variety of interpretations possible. The poem, from a psychoanalytical viewpoint, conveys an ambiguous outlook; Harwoods use of light imagery conveys that the future can be deceptive and temporary. Whereas the same use of light imagery can be interpreted from a Freudian viewpoint; when your self has matured you are able to see both sides of the light, hence the ambiguous images. Language is also used to portray the boys opinion of his father who apparently held fiddle and bow, and scraped assent to the malignant ballet. Such language conveys the boys oedipal perception that his father is orchestrating his misfortune. The incorporation of the Oedipal tale into the poem also brings out themes of maturing as the oedipal complex implies an identification between the monsters of the night as well as his father and the learning necessary to maturation.

Harwood continues this manipulation of structure and style in her poem The Violets, and it is again evident that it is this manipulation that has contributed to the success of the poem, as it also enables a variety of readings and interpretations possible. The Violets is one of Harwoods lyrical, meditative poems which deals with the themes of childhood and memory. It recaptures and recreates without sentimentality or self-indulgent nostalgia the life of an only child in a secure and happy family and follows Harwoods ambiguous dilemma of adulthood as she searches for comfort in fondly embellished childhood memories of Brisbane. The imagery throughout is pivotal when interpreting the poem in different ways. The violets are an ambiguous symbol of both beauty and transience, in that violets are short lived flowers; Spring violets in their loamy bed. Psychoanalytically; Frail melancholy flowers among ashes and loam from the adult point of view juxtaposes with the quote from the last point; Their sweetness, from the childs perspective, shows that the child, through innocent eyes, sees the violets as beautiful. The adult, matured through experiences, knows that the flower will die. In a religious sense this could be seen as a reflection of the dark times that the adult is experiencing on their road back to innocence. Harwood continues her multi-facet imagery throughout the poem, not only using the violets but also light imagery to enable an array of interpretations. Humanists would see the light or memories of the light; light the lamp and wheres morning gone, as a way for the parents to provide comfort, not God; Lamp lit presences- parents are the beacons. A religious perspective would see the light as the parents bringing God into the dark times of the child. However, the light is Ambiguous and un-returning along with the blurred darkness which encourages a psychoanalytical interpretation as a confused state of mind is presented. It is due to Harwoods ability to create multi-facet imagery that enable an assortment of readings and interpretations possible, contributing to the poems success, and its ability to transcend time. Harwood uses a regular and generally unobtrusive rhyme scheme. Lines that convey present have four beats while some of the past have three. This has the effect of making the evocation of the past more strikingly simple, suggesting a childish sensibility. Structural indented phrase, years cannot move stands alone and acts as a bridge to present, though the images of the past return again in a vignette of tenderness in the last stanza. The indentations and paragraphing has a purpose; to employ juxtaposition, connecting past with present with verses to create a further division between the phases of child and adult. A Feminist view may interpret this as a demonstration of independence, yet there is irony as the mother is presented as feminine and the house worker and the father as the bread-winner. As can be seen, it is due to Harwoods ability to employ a unique structure to the poem The Violets that enables the responder to more easily follow the storyline and to also encourage alternate readings of the poem.

Despite differing responses to texts over time, it is ultimately the structure and style of a text that is significant in evaluating it success. Through a critical study of both The Glass Jar and The Violets it is evident that it is Harwoods ability as a composer to effectively use form, structure and language techniques, in conjunction with the distinctive qualities of her poetic techniques that has contributed to the success of her poetry, thus enabling it to transcend time.