Gwen_Harwood

“Without a comprehensive understanding of Harwood and her concerns, her poetry cannot be effectively appreciated” The appreciation of Gwen Harwood’s various poetry can be effective with or without knowledge and a comprehensive understanding of her concerns. Regardless of whether we know about the poet an effective appreciation, when reading the poem, can easily be made. In the Harwood poems “A Valediction” and “The Violets” it is evident that a personal interpretation can be made regardless of how much you may know about Harwood. Although the way Harwood may have hoped her poetry was to be understood may not be achieved as successfully. In the poem “The Violets” Harwood explores the themes of dissatisfaction, with her adult life, the pace of time and the frailty of memories. The poem opens on a “dusk” day with a melancholy tone. We learn of Hardwoods dissatisfaction of adult life as she “picks frail melancholy flowers/ among ashes and loam”. This is the first we hear of hardwoods childhood memories as they’re metaphorically represented as the flowers. The simile “the melting west / is striped like ice cream” also allows the audience to see the two perspectives of the scene and creates an image of the scene in our minds, therefore allowing us to appreciate her frame of mind without previous knowledge of her concerns. An indentation of the left margin continues throughout the poem from stanza two till stanza 5 and briefly in stanza six the indentation returns. The indent represents the flashback to the personas memories as we learn of her confusion yet comfort when she acknowledges her loss of day. The rhetorical question, “where has morning gone'” allows the audience to comprehend with the young girls state of mind, so we can fully appreciate the memory. Throughout the poem, “the violets”, we are constantly reminded of how quickly time may pass and overall develop an understanding of how we feel the persona is reacting to this realization of her maturity. We visit a memory where the persona felt comfort and unconditionally loved as she could sense the smell of violet. Just as the violets comforted her in her childhood, the persona uses the violets as a doorway to her memories to comfort her in her adult life. The use of violets as this doorway helps the audience to fully understand the frailty of her memories and even the loss that may occur gradually with time as the personas memory may become weak. In contrast hardwoods poem “a valediction” expresses the themes of growth, independence and the power of love, dominantly. We follow the persona through a journey of maturation as she deals with the departure of her partner. Intertexuality plays a large role in the poem as she finds comfort in John Donne’s poetry familiar to her as she experiences ‘aches of adolescence” when reading it. References to two female women “Lou Salome” and “Saint Therese” allow the audience to comprehend the different ways a person can love and with comparisons throughout the poem we can interpret her changing love from adolescence “all consuming” similar to Lou’s and as an opposite, a lost love that the persona can deal with from inside, a more realistic way to love. As we progress through the poem we acknowledge the personas realization of how one can independently deal with this melancholy feeling of abandonment without the dependency of John Donne’s poetry. Sibilance such as “singlehearted saint” allows the audience to understand the personas calmness and serenity as she is dealing with this departure in her own contentment. Personal pronouns throughout the poem such as “I” and “my” also help to add a personal tone to the poem. Whilst the persona is vulnerable the poem shifts, quite often, from present to past yet as she matures a clear and strong present and even a mention of future, “will pleasure him”, allows the audience to acknowledge the personas growth. Once reading the poem the audience is left with a feeling of strength as we understand her love and her journey as she coped with the departure of her partner. From a feminist reading the audience can see how a woman made vulnerable by a man, dependant on a man (Donne) to cope with her sadness and eventually the woman finds her inner strength. The tone of the poem also begins quite melancholy like yet throughout the poem and certainly by the end we can feel the strength as the persona as it parallels with the tone and structure of the poem allowing the textual integrity of the poem to come together, the meaning becomes strongly projected. Throughout these two poems “A Valediction” and “The Violets” Harwood discusses the contrasting themes of independence and the power of love and memory and it’s significance in allowing a person to feel that familiarity they once felt. I believe that without knowledge of Harwood’s concerns a clear message can be formed depending on the reader’s interpretation. We are all aware that many interpretations of a poem can be made yet the beauty of all poetry is that even without sound knowledge of a person, as they express themselves, we are able to fully understand how they may be feeling and if the poet has executed her poems well there will be no misinterpretations. I believe Harwood has succeeded in allowing any reader to understand the messages she has expressed and taking a prominent new knowledge of particular importances in life as we read “A Valediction” and “The Violets”.