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. Traditionally associated with death and mourning, the imagery of the “frail melancholy flowers” are alliterated and personified to emulate Harwood’s connection to the past and the loss of childhood joyfulness. This is enhanced by the juxtaposition of “ashes and loam”, the flowers are paradoxically growing among fertile and barren soil, relating to the past thriving through memories and the present time. The structural indentation indicating time shifts throughout Harwood’s flashbacks create a realm of nostalgia and is reinforced by the change in verbal tense “I kneel to pick” and “be comforted”, it accentuates our understanding of the evocativeness of the recalling of memories. The parents
The last stanza reaffirms the strong bonds of family love. The line ‘Faint scent of violets drifts in air’ recalls the past and enriches the present where the persona is going through hardships in life. As she has looked back to the childhood memories for sustenance and support, it shapes her life and allows her to gain strength from comforting memories. The idea that the past is irreclaimable and neither death nor time can distort the memory of the moment is evident. “Father and Child” is essentially concerned with the loss of innocence through a negative experience, which allows the persona to grow.
In the story, independence is portrayed as a pleasure that is forbidden . As such, it should only be imagined by anyone only when they are alone. When Louise hears of her husband's death, she is immediately hit with grief. Her reaction is what is expected, though it may be less painful than for other women. When Louise is alone, she starts realizing that with her husband's death, she now has her independence.
He infers that love plays a pivotal part in the life and death of “Youth” because of the sole period used in the concluding line. This careful syntax conveys how love is the root of pure childhood and how it fades in adulthood. Therefore, it can be inferred that growing up doesn’t necessarily mean being more mature. Losing the ability to love unconditionally, forgive easily, and share naturally is nothing to be proud of. Brooke uses personification to further his lesson that the transition from “Youth” to adulthood may be detrimental to the changing person.
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
The central meaning of both poems is death should not be feared for there is eternal life after this life. Dickinson chooses to personify death and compare it to how great eternity is to reveal the theme. Donne personifies death to lower it down and show that death has no power. Analyzing the two poems by each stanza or line enables readers to more clearly understand the message the poet is giving. In Dickinson’s poem the first stanza compares dying to taking a carriage ride with a suitor.
Harwood’s poetry has more than “limited value” for a modern reader. Gwen Harwood’s poetry explores universal themes and concerns, such as time, memory, dreams, the nature of existence and music. Her poetry offers a modern reader the opportunity to explore the possibility of different interpretations of “The Glass Jar”, “Alter Ego” and “The Violets”. “The Violets” is a poem in which violets are a visual motif representing recollections of the poet’s childhood in which the violets trigger a shift in time and place (indicated by a typographical indentation), a shift between adulthood and childhood. The speaker kneels to pick violets at dusk; she recalls a childhood experience which also featured these flowers.
Wendy Copes poem Being Boring was about looking into the past and reminiscing about the things she experience in her life. Now that she settled down, she is content and she does not have to worry about anything. She used this poem to express her feelings and emotions to show her listeners how much she grew and overcame. When life’s struggles try to knock one down you must get back up fight. Then one can be
Erica demonstrates this aspect further as she is implied to have symbolically drowned in her ‘murky waters’. The theme of nostalgia links Changez and Erica through its ability to hinder them both of life. Erica’s life becomes ‘dormant’ after Chris and she ‘stops doing many things’ similarly Changez is griped in ‘unhealthy melancholy’ and loses ‘satisfaction in life’, alluding to readers that he is to follow Erica’s path, in search of ‘home’. In addition to nostalgia, Hamid’s novel strongly appoints the motif of home and homeland as a trigger to Changez and Erica’s growing sense of’ foreignness’ and longing for ‘home’. Erica confesses to Changez that Chris is her ‘home’ and in turn Changez
In the beginning of the second stanza she says “I knew the language of the floweret;” telling the reader there is an underline symbolism in the flower to be known. “My fragile leaves,” it said, “his heart enclosed.” The reader can conclude from this that the message with the rose was just like the roses leaves are fragile he is also fragile,