Poets through the ages have been esteemed as possessing the ability to perceive the ordinary in extraordinary and innovative ways. Poetry captures the essences of human emotion and experience and imbues them with further significance by the literary techniques that typify poetry as the language of art. In her poetry, Gwen Harwood explores many thematic concerns that resonate with her readers regardless of their contexts. The universality of concepts such as memory, inspiration, childhood education and the cyclical, yet final nature of death are transformed by Harwood’s poetry to create fresh perceptions of the continuity of experience and provide permanence to these transient elements of humanity through language. The poetic techniques employed by Harwood effectively communicate distinctive aspects of her themes while allowing them to remain universal.
Gwen Harwood’s poetry encapsulates human experiences as both timeless and integral to the formation of our present perceptions. By examining the role of memory in her poems “The Violets” and “At Mornington”, Harwood identifies that their significance is that of an everlasting memory that will dominate over time’s continuity and the inevitability of death. Through the exploration of this universal concept and its overarching examination across her body of works, Harwood’s poetry possess textual integrity and simultaneously addresses the personal and universal audience thereby resonating with a broad audience and a number of critical perspectives. Engaging with her own personal experiences, Gwen Harwood conveys the echoing message of the dominant
In your view, how have poetic techniques been used to reveal memorable ideas in Harwood’s poetry? Harwood’s widespread encapsulations of human experiences are recognised through her distinctive poetry, “The Violets” and “father and child”. Harwood explores the intrinsic forces of memories and mortality as its essence immensely influences our shaping an individual’s perspective and understanding, highlighted by the structured format. Through the nostalgic and melancholic atmospheres of her poems, Harwood journeys unto the universal themes of childhood and the penetration of time through memories, accumulated in the course of human experiences. Harwood identifies memory as a key component of human experiences through the use of ‘The Violets’ as an extended metaphor to trigger the composer’s personal recollections.
What is the situation and setting of the poem? The situation is Li-Young Lee taking a splinter out of his wife’s hand. The poem says, “Had you followed that little boy you would have arrived here, where I bend over my wife’s right hand”. The poem does not give enough of a clue to where here is.
19 May 2011 Explication of Theodore Roethke’s “Root Cellar” A popular theme of a variety of art and media, life and death are often focused on individually. In the poem “Root Cellar,” Theodore Roethke creates a vivid depiction of life fighting for survival. To give a sense of the struggle life is facing, the poet uses a vocabulary that conveys a sense of unease and degradation. Perhaps drawing on his upbringing, Roethke shows a contrast of existence amidst backdrop of downtrodden cellar in the throes of decay, giving readers an insight into the intrinsic power of life’s resilient capabilities. The poem opens with heavy imagery to show the difficulty that one would expect life to have surviving in a root cellar.
The poem “Father and Child” initiates the reader to the inescapable emotion of loss and here Harwood uses tense shifts throughout her poetry to emphasise and
Harwood’s poetry captures the essences of human emotion and experience and imbues them with further significance by the literary techniques that exemplify her poetry as the “language of art”. In her poetry, Gwen Harwood explores many themes that resonate with her readers regardless of their contexts. The universality of concepts such as human existence, the dichotomies of life, youth and age, loss of innocence, memory, and the inevitability of death are transformed by Harwood’s poetry, as she simultaneously transcends and embeds social, historical and gender restraints of her context. the grey cloudy back ground also relate to this. Lastly the actual phrases represent a feminist perspective, all phrases are extracts from some of the most renowned feminists to date, these include Harwood has written the poem under the pseudonym of Walter Lehman This suggests that Harwood had a considerable political temperament as well as an ability to poke fun or mock the social constraints of her time.
Memory, a powerful aspect used in the poems of Gwen Harwood reinforcing her poem’s textual integrity. Personas are shown to use memory as a way to rationalise their inevitable death and combat the reality that time is transcendent. In ‘At Mornington’, Harwood depicts a persona recalling on a vague, imprecise memory from the personas’ childhood. In ‘The Violets’ Harwood uses sensory memory to depict an instance where the persona uses memory to rationalise death and the transcendence of time. She also explores notions of love and friendship through memory in her poems.
Good afternoon and welcome to the Critical Study of Texts Academic Forum. Today I will discuss how Gwen Harwood’s poems are valued through the challenging ideas of nostalgia and morality. Memory is a significant motif throughout Harwood’s poetry. Memory can be subjective, fickle and unreliable as demonstrated in ‘The Violets’. The memory process is so powerful as to superimpose images of the past on to the present colouring a faded and melancholy world.
ROSEMARY DOBSON “Confidence is what we get when we take fear, face it and replace it.” This quote by Tim Fargo defines discovery as continuously having the sense of mind to be intrigued by curiosity and anticipation. Good afternoon fellow classmates and staff members. Rosemary Dobson, one of Australia’s award winning poets who have recently passed away in 2012, explored and demonstrated her love of art and antiquity in her poetry through an economical and very visual style of writing. Dobson is also known to write very much like an imagist poet. Henceforth, through Dobson’s poetic vision, readers discover new insights and experience through curiosity and maturation.