Gwen Harwood Essay

Poetry creatively captures valet de chambre experience, feeling and nature. Gwen Harwood employs a range of literary and poetic techniques such as shapery, phantasmal allusions and embodiment to demonstrate the universality of ideas such as detriment, decease, remembrance and puerility. by this, Harwoods poetry to creates clear and strong perceptions of the continuity of experience and go away permanence to these transient elements of mankindity.In Triste, Triste, Harwood explores the core themes of post coital mournfulness and the contradictory nature of the sensual and spiritual authorizedms that atomic number 18 created by the human personate. These aspects all pertain to the human experience and growth of oneself. That is, the physicality of the skeleton, or frame, and the intellectual and creative importance of the brain as a muscle. The nub of the word Triste is sad and mournful thusly the repetition of this word in the title is indicative of Harwoods grammat ical construction on the loss of inspiration. In the first stanza, a yearning and appargonnt need for ongoing physical passion in the continuous space between love and eternal sleep presents the notion of sleep and its ironically nurturing qualities for the mind and the body despite the faineance of the body during this time of restoration.The phrase furthermore provokes the reader to reflect on such moments in their own feeling, and to reflect on space with regenerate significance and how important it is for the brain and the self. Harwood describes this process as a prison, eyes against shoulder keep their blood black curtains tight body rolls back like a s disembodied spirit. Parallels are drawn between the high-minded that the imagination is a separate entity and the separation between the physical skull and its habitation for the brain to reside, the brain resembles the imagination or factory of creativity. The poem makes particular and clear biblical references to the Res urrection by dint of and done with(predicate) imagery furthermore providing to the creative self, as it is aligned with the Christ, walking to Easter light. The necessity of the escapism and denudation of spiritual intensity is strongly reinforced. In do-gooder to the biblical references, manufacturer imagery is implied with the Angelic light.The continuing use of personification and imagery encourages the reader to value the indistinct moments of passionate afterglow as hazard to liberate the imagination. Harwood creates distinctiveness between the divine light present in the second stanza a considerable with the darkness of tangible sleep and love through her use of enjambment and repetition which draws attention to the ending of imaginative inspiration. In the last stanza, Harwood recombines the spirit with the corporal self which ultimately conveys the necessity of amour physically and the evanescence of imaginative passion. Additionally, the physical self along with th e sensational self, are brought together as one entity which cannot exist without the other thus they give birth equal importance and value, despite having separate functions. Throughout the poem Gwen Harwood reinforces the paradox that implies that extreme pleasure must coincide with extreme pain.In addition to her references to loss and sadness, Gwen Harwood amalgamates various elements of human experience through the reflection of memory as a primary theme. The importance of memory is expressed through harmonizing various layers of an individuals demeanor and their shared experiences to create a single that reconciles one with the conclusiveness of remainder. This concept is expressed through usual themes of childhood, friendship and loss allowing her ideas to rest strongly with the reader. At Mornington is a reflection on mortality, and the value of memory in terms of appreciating life. The thematic concerns of loss and grief unravel through the first stanza. The persona describes her relationship with her render and establishes him as a protective figure through her pondering of childhood memories.This motif of water is representative of serenity, peace and reflection which is furthermore schematic through the personification of the wave which was caught and rolled. Harwood distinguishes the finality and formality of death, which is conveyed in the poem through the dull imagery, the durability of marble and granite gravestones with the fragility of memory, temporary as light to convey the gravitational stance of human life as opposed to the perceptions of experience that we choose to retain in our memory. A connection is made between memory and loss as they are both products of the past and Harwood uses this to reflect on the significance of valuing the present. This is furthered through the the wholeness of this day shared between two friends.The poem is established through Harwoods memory of her early childhood when she leapt from her fathers arms into the sea. She views her childish persistence, evidently through the repetition of the next wave. This concept is again reinforced through the blue brain referencing water and the sea with an underlying commentary on the qualities of water and childhood alike. This concept of childhood memory is later referenced in Harwoods image of pumpkins cost increasein airy defiance of nature, a metaphor for her never-ending trials against the inevitability of death and emergence in the fastness of light. The tone of the poem becomes reflective as the persona and her friend stand in silence amongst the avenues of the dead, which creates a need for solace and comfort.The silence of a dead human be is furthermore referenced through the image of the skull as it resembles the result of death. Reflection is regarded highly throughout At Mornington hence the ongoing reference to silence is important as relfection requires silence and tranquillity. The exculpated belief that defying grav ity was only a matter of balance is reflected in the personas present longing to transcend the gravity of death in airy defiance of nature.The idea of memory is furthered through the use of a dream whereby the persona begins to reconcile transient life with death. The raw and accentuated emotion of the poem turns 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 dwelling on mortality emerges a serenity and betrothal inspired by unifying the inescapability of death with an acceptance of human nature and an appreciation of memory and friendship.Likewise, in her poem The Violets, Harwood blends the emotion of grief with a reflection on memory in ordinate to achieve a state of reconciliation. The first stanza depicts a melancholy vista where frail violets excite the personas recollection of a affecting childhood experience. Harwoods adult grief is mirrored by her new-fashio ned outrage at the time which had been stolen from her, and like death, the loss of time is irreplaceable. even so 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 nominal heads 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 clear-cut 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.Gwen Harwood explores and delves into the themes of time, death, childhood and loss which are all intrinsic to human experience. She effectively employs a range of poetic and literary techniques to explore transience, finality and the imperative role of memory.