Gwen_Harwood_Speech

“Poetry bridges the gap between the needs of the flesh and the mysteries of the human soul in its search for the whole self” (M.C. Richards) It is with great pleasure and satisfaction that I stand before the esteemed company representatives of ‘Empak Recording Pty Ltd’ to endorse the inclusion of Gwen Harwood’s poetry on your impending CD entitled; ‘Poetry Anthologies’. The poetry of Gwen Harwood explores the concept behind human existence, the dichotomies of life, youth and age, loss of innocence, memory, and the inevitability of death in an attempt to explain and cater for the relentless movement of time, thus investigating the social mores and values affecting the contemporary audience. The poems Father and Child (1953) and Triste, Triste (1963) enable Harwood to draw upon symbols to reconcile the paradoxical nature of our world amid a variety of literary techniques and devices including enjambment, allusions, simile, descriptive language, synecdoche, juxtaposition, repetition, imagery, and alliteration. Inspired by the philosophy of Holderlin and Wittgenstein, music, family, religion and the romanticism and modernism movements, Harwood is able to “fulfil a deep inner necessity…to realize in words the moments that gave her life its meaning.” It is Harwood’s definitive context that sanctions the sustained contemporary appreciation of her poetry from a variety of perspectives, including religious, feminist and psychoanalytic readings. The diptych that constitutes Father and Child; Barn Owl and Nightfall is essentially concerned with the loss of innocence through experience, primarily that between the binary oppositions of life and death. Harwood juxtaposes the youthful persona’s potential for both good, “obedient, angel minded”, and evil, “horny fiend” in an attempt to foreshadow the possible carnage that is soon to occur. The theme of ‘lost innocence through the passage of time’ is similarly demonstrated in At Mornington as this poem also deals with the transience of time and the alteration from innocence to maturity, drawing on imagery to convey its meaning. The child believes she “could walk on water” only to eventually realize through her maturity that this is not possible. Themes such as life’s fragility and morality are emphasised through the juxtaposition of the poem’s titles, Barn owl, which represents morning, signifying a new beginning, and Nightfall, symbolic of closure and death, and its inevitability. As Nightfall progresses, the use of enjambment becomes more frequent- the last four stanzas are almost a sentence each. This gives the poem an illusory, philosophical quality that reflects both the father’s approaching death and the reflective mood of the child, hence, appealing to the contemporary audience. Imagery is also used to significant effect when Harwood describes the owl’s eyes as “daylight riddled”. Harwood applies synecdoche when the persona defies her father in the attempted killing of the predatory bird represented through “beak and claw”. A feminist reading can consequently be appropriated for Father and Child through the patriarchal loss of femininity by the persona as she “fired”, which is symbolic of the child’s loss of youthful innocence, but more importantly it outlines that; “In order for women to gain power, they must sacrifice their femineity and attribute masculine qualities”. Power roles have been inverted from the dominant, comforting father “leaned my head upon my father’s arm and wept” to the now matured child, as evident in Nightfall’s contemplative tone and diction, “Forty years lived or dreamed, what memories pack them home”. The child has now developed an understanding of ‘el transience de existencia’ (the transience of existence), “grown to learn what sorrows… no tears can mend”, acknowledging death as a component of life’s inveterate process, a stage of humanity that is to be embraced, as depicted through the simile; “like light on the face of the waters that bear me away forever”. Throughout Father and Child, Harwood encompasses intertextuality providing significant depth and meaning to her poetry through references to ‘King Lear’, “Be your tears wet'” (act iv, scene vii); where Lear addresses Cordelia shortly before her hanging, and through Wittgenstein, “Things truly named can never vanish from earth”, which echoes sentiments of his philosophies such as “by giving names to things they become part of our culture”. As a result of the persona delivering the death sentence on the owl, biblical illusions such as from ‘Samson’ are evident through the verses; “robbed of power by sleep”, “early sun”, and “time’s long promised land” which enable the poem to be read from a religious and perhaps from a post-modern perspective as well. Qualities like biblical illusions, similes and the importance of understanding the dichotomies of life, as mentioned earlier, provide the contemporary audience with a continued machination, interest and value towards Harwood’s work. Such strong religious connotations are also resembled through Harwood’s other poems including Mother Who Gave Me Life where in stanza two Harwood presents a biblical illusion to Jesus; “It is not for my children I walk on earth in the light of the living. It is for you.”, and in A Valediction, where in stanza five another biblical illusion is made, this time to “Saint Therese of Lisieux”. “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and thought has found words.” (Robert Frost) Written under the pseudo of Walter Lehmann, Triste, Triste is yet another of Gwen Harwood’s poems which is deeply personal as she reminisces on the past, writing about themes of memory, death, and the transience of time. Triste, Triste places immense prominence on life after death, describing the soul as symbolic to eternal life with God in heaven, and the heart as emblematic of the earthly body. Translated to Sad, Sad, Triste, Triste can be best described as a declaration of faith in which Harwood refers extensively to biblical illusions specific and significant to teachings and events from the Christian Church. Through verses such as “risen spirit walks to Easter light” and a direct quotation from the Bible (Luke 23:30-43) “I was with you in agony. Remember your promise of paradise, and hammers and hammers, Remember me.”, Harwood is able to “express her belief in the power of poetry to infuse experience with value”, in doing so, she reinforces modern and contemporary morals and values upheld within society. The intertextuality present from this biblical passage is reference to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and God’s “promise of paradise.” Techniques such as frequent alliteration “blood-black”; “harrow hearts”, simile “body rolls back like a stone” and repetition “hammers and hammers” enhance the overall qualities of the poem in which a contemporary audience would value. A religious reading can therefore be applied to Triste, Triste as the responder is inclined to adopt and relate with the immanent dimensions of human existence, therefore increasing the audience’s understanding of the text. “Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal which the reader recognises as his own.” (Salvatore Quasimodo) The attached persona of Triste, Triste enables Harwood to reflect poetry in a personal sense as she articulates between life and death, in epitome, referring to the purpose of life as “love” and the inevitable outcome of life, being death, as “sleep”. In the first stanza she illustrates vivid imagery by depicting the death and consequence of the “risen spirit”, Harwood conveys that a heart imprisoned in a departed soul’s body is immoral and dissipated meaning that perhaps she is against anti- religious pessimists, movements or behaviours which defy acceptance of God’s will. In the second stanza, Harwood speaks of the confrontation with God that we must all face at some stage, again creating vivid imagery by describing her perceived setting; “walking alone to unbearable light with angelic gestures.” Through such descriptive language, and the underlying values and morals she presents to the responder, the contemporary audience would subsequently admire and respect her work. In the third stanza there is a reciprocation of the words “love and sleep” to “sleep and love” signifying that the departed “loved other” has left the earthly body and is now spending eternal life with God in heaven. Harwood implies that the true pain and agony of death is not with the departed individual, but with the residual family members and friends; “So the loved other is held for mortal comfort.” Similarly, The Sharpness of Death also discusses death as its centralised foci, and to an extent personifies it through the lines; “Death, you’ve become obscene.” Triste, Triste also deals with the theme of memory to a considerable extent, evident when Jesus addresses his father in the biblical passage; “Remember your promise of paradise”, “Remember me.” Here striking resemblances are also correlated with The Violets where memory is fundamental to the recollections of her childhood and the love shared for her parents, the violets acting as a trigger to recollect such reminiscences. Consequently, through the analysis of memories and the unconscious mind in Triste, Triste, a psychoanalytical reading can be imposed where Harwood explores “the inner psychology as opposed to the external geography.” “A poem is never finished, only abandoned” (Paul Valery) In essence, the poetry of Gwen Harwood is representative of several qualities and values that appeal to a contemporary audience, particularly through the poems Father and Child and Triste, Triste. In conjunction with these two poems, a variety of techniques and devices including enjambment, allusions, simile, descriptive language, synecdoche, juxtaposition, repetition, imagery, and alliteration as well as through the inspiration of Holderlin, Wittgenstein, music, family, religion and the romanticism and modernism movements, have enabled Harwood to effectively communicate these qualities and values that appeal to the contemporary audience. By interpreting these two distinct poems from different perspectives and readings such as religious, feminist and psychoanalytic, the contemporary audience is able to increase their understanding of the texts and their holistic concept of poetry. It is my sincere hope that eminent company representatives of ‘Empak Recording Pty Ltd’ consider my proposal for the inclusion of Gwen Harwood poetry on their impending CD entitled; ‘Poetry Anthologies’. For it is without a doubt that the introduction of Gwen Harwood’s poetry will only be beneficial to the company in its endeavour to promote and endorse poetry. “Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful” (Rita Dove)