Gwen Harwood to a large extend, takes marginalised groups such as women, and privileges their experiences by giving them a voice through poetry. Both ‘Suburban Sonnet’ and ‘Burning Sappho’ express the frustrations of women who feel tapped by motherhood and the expectation that they will conform to domestic roles. Harwood comments on the inability of women to pursue personal happiness as she shows that motherhood can be both rewarding and all consuming. Meaning is therefore drawn from each poem through Harwood's intricate use of stylistic features such as figurative language and imagery, shaping readers to understand that it is often those we love that cause the most intense feelings of resentment and internal frustration. Through both ‘Suburban …show more content…
This is shown through the metaphorical pot boiling over as “zest and love drain out with soapy water as she scours the crusted milk.” Through this metaphor, Harwood shapes meaning through insinuating that the women’s passion has been “drained out” and lost through her obligation to household chores. With this, she creates the image that women should sacrifice their dreams and aspirations to become a mother figure to their children. Through references to “Rubinstein’s yawn” - known to be a famous pianist - Harwood implies a masculine judgement causing the persona to question whether she has ever really had a captive audience as “She practices a fugue, though it can matter to no one now if she plays well or not.” ’Suburban Sonnet’ is told from the persona’s point of view, leading readers to question whether the women in the sonnet could perhaps be the poet herself. Harwood therefore articulates the experiences of the 1950’s suburban housewives who were expected to forget the other aspects of their lives and simply be content with the joys and burdens of …show more content…
Harwood therefore uses the poem as a social commentary on 1950’s Australia. Through figurative language, she shows a dark side to motherhood and how the repetitive and mundane lifestyle can be exhausting. The line “hatred forks between my child and me” shows that the persona is an honest reflection on how ultimately, a mother can resent her children at times. Harwood therefore uses the rhythm of her ‘vengeances’ to form the final couplet in each of her stanza’s which stress that they are related humorously. The quote “inside my smile a monster grins, and sticks her image through with pins.” contains a child like rhyme that contrasts against the dark statements suggesting that the humorous exaggerations could be the persona’s way of dealing with her own confinement. The relationship between the mother and child is shown through the authors use of connotative language in words such as “wines” “monster” and “hatred” which mirrors the persona’s frustration and shows that their relationship is often one of hatred and resentment. Through the metaphor of “the devils burning in my brain” as well as the “monster grins”, Harwood conveys a metaphorical suggestion of her internal frustration. ‘Burning Sappho’ was written under the female
While the mothers in neither Dobson’s nor Harwood’s poems are entirely content with the situations, they have found themselves in, they have ultimately chosen to make the necessary sacrifices because a mother’s love for her child is
Over 3.2 million students are victims of bullying each year. “Het everybody, let’s put their in the closet before the teacher comes ! “ said the children from “All Summer in a Day”. This children can be very vicious. Cruelty and jealousy is shown in the way the children treat Margot (the main character)in “All Summer in a Day” .
With that, she later alerts the poem to a much darker tone as she continues to contrast between the boy and herself. She digs into deeper issues like poverty and wealth. She even makes several stereotypical comments
Judith Butler’s Gender Troubles emphasizes gender as the constant repetition of non-existent ideals to uphold a masculine-dominant culture. Likewise, “Body Politics” highlights this belief within the overtly feminine qualities of city women. As a whole, the poem contrasts idealized feminine “city women” with a “real woman” who possesses both feminine and masculine qualities. The mother figure challenges both the gender binary and the patriarchal order by rejecting the feminine gender norms of the society. This feminist reading of the poem makes many valuable and probable claims, however the feminist approach contains some weaknesses.
Another may wish for a child to dote over, but never have one placed in her hands. There are also those women who deliberately choose not to have children and may even face criticism for not dedicating their bodies and futures to their womanly duty. Though every woman’s experience with motherhood is unique, it will be a defining characteristic in her life. The poets, Anne Bradstreet and Gwendolyn Brooks, tell the world what this definition is for each of them and though these two women have completely different experiences with motherhood, both demonstrate the deep, undying love that mothers have for their children and the grief women experience because of this love. Anne Bradstreet, a Puritan woman living in colonial America, reflects on her fond memories of her time spent as an exemplary mother to eight children in her poem, “In reference to Her Children, 23 June, 1659.”
Brendan Moxley Mrs. Barton AP Lang & Comp/p.6 28 October 2014 The Awakening Essay Throughout her novel The Awakening, Kate Chopin utilizes clear, picturesque diction to create a independent tone, bold extended metaphors, and varied syntax in order to express the necessity for women to discover and act as themselves at their own discretion despite society’s limiting standards. Chopin employs eloquent, depictive diction in order to create an unconstrained tone, to illustrate the setting, and to further emphasize that women should not be bound by society.
Throughout the poem, the speaker’s mother seems to be upset. The poems tone shifts when the speaker begins to talk about themselves. The speaker talks down on herself. The speakers states, “I will turn out bad”(31). From this, viewers can assume that the poems tone is unsatisfied.
In Katherine Anne Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” Porter writes a story about the life of a dying old woman, who is strong-willed and persistent. She has been through more tragedy than triumph, and it has shown through her character. Porter portrays Granny’s character to the viewer as unkind through her unforgiving nature, she writes in such a way to create interest in the reader, shows symbolistic ideas regarding the way of life of Granny, and gives a hidden meaning of Hapsy’s importance to Granny. Granny Weatherall has been through a great deal of hardship throughout her life. She was widowed at an early age by her second husband, and then left to raise her children all on her own while having to run a farm (Sprich).
The two sonnets I will be comparing are Shakespeare's “Sonnet 65” and “I shall forget you presently, my dear” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Though these are both sonnets within the theme of love, they are on opposite sides of the spectrum. Both sonnets are in typical sonnet form, with three quatrains and an ending couplet, and a rhyme scheme of ababcdcdefefgg. The meter for both is iambic pentameter.
You’re Introduction: Hello, and welcome to my individual oral commentary on “You’re” by Sylvia Plath. The poem portrays the idea of pregnancy and motherhood. Motherhood and pregnancy has been a crucial identity of women, which had become a stereotype in the early twentieth century. It is a much-awaited phase in woman’s lifetime that brings a bucketful of joy but requires intensive effort and composure. Sylvia Plath, a famous poet active during mid-twentieth century, articulates the phase of pregnancy in her poem, “You’re”.
Hello, my name is Rahel and my name is Vivian. Today we are presenting and analysing the poem ‘In the Park’ by Gwen Harwood. Our visual presentation is in the form of a set photographs, this is called expectations versus reality. We named our set of photographs this because we believe it relates to the poem because through the words written we can sense that the mother loathes the reality she is living in, that the expectations she had for herself were not achieved. The mother yearns for the life she could have had and probably dreams about it every so often, so we created a snapshot of the alternative reality she craves through these photos.
A famous poetic work of Gwendolyn Brooks is “The Mother.” In this moving piece, Brooks speaks in the voice of a mother who has aborted her child. She starts powerfully with, “Abortions will not let you forget/ You remember the children that you did not get.” As this was written in 1945 when abortion was a controversial issue (before rights for women and abortions were guaranteed), this bold poem brought awareness to abortion itself, written to reach out to all the mothers who have aborted their children (Shmoop).
Compare and contrast the view of the motherhood described in the MORNING SONG BY SYLVIA PLATH AND LIGHT GATHERER CAROL-ANN DUFFY Introduction The American novelist, Alice walker once said, “how simple a thing seems that to know ourselves as we are, we must know our mothers name.” Walker simplicity yet complex use of words to describe a mother maternal. When she states the phrase “we must know our mother’s names” it shows(?). which creates the contrast that I see when I read the poems: MORNING SONG by Silvia Plath and LIGHT GATHERER by Carol-Ann Duffy one idealizing and one honest about every bit about motherhood. Despite the difference in the mothers’ opinions the were very similar by using figurative language to create big images about
An Exegesis of Shakespeare Sonnet 87 In his plays and poems, the Bard fails not to explore all aspects of love – including rejection. Sonnet 87 is a testimony of breaking up, not because of relationship issues, not due to external forces (such as an affair), but because on some social scale in the poet’s eye, the woman is higher up. Yet the sonnet is deliberately ambiguous. As is characteristic of Shakespeare’s writing, a close reading reveals that we can’t tell if he is talking about a too-expensive call girl, or the love of his life.
This image seems at first cold, but it is a realistic judgment of her ideas of parenthood. The feeling of distance is also shown in: “I’m not more your mother than the cloud that distils as mirror to reflect its own slow effacement at the wind’s hoard.” The final lines of the poem present the reassuring vision of a loving mother attending to her baby's needs. Plath’s self-image – ‘cow-heavy and floral in my Victorian nightgown’ – is self-deprecating and realistic. The final image is an optimistic one.