PRELIMINARY ENGLISH ADVANCED

AREA OF STUDY: BREAKING FREE

POETRY OF
GWEN HARWOOD

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Syllabus Context
Area of Study: Breaking Free

In the Area of Study, students explore and examine relationships between language and
text, and interrelationships among texts. They examine closely the individual qualities of
texts while considering the texts’ relationships to the wider context of the Area of Study.
They synthesise ideas to clarify meaning and develop new meanings. They take into
account whether aspects such as context, purpose and register, text structures, stylistic
features, grammatical features and vocabulary are appropriate to the particular text.

Area of Study: Breaking Free

Students will explore the Area of Study: Breaking Free, through an exploration of the
prescribed novels. They will consider the social, historical and personal circumstances from
which some individuals seek freedom. This could include physical and metaphorical
constraints which require individuals to make choices. Students will consider how and why
individuals react to their circumstances and the choices they make to challenge, resist or
conform. They will investigate a range of texts relating to this topic in terms of how textual
features represent aspects of this concept. They will compose a range of critical and
imaginative texts in response to the topic.

Students will need to consider their prescribed text and other related texts of their own
choosing.

Prescribed Texts:
1. Harwood, Gwen, Selected Poems: A New Edition, Halycon Press, 2001,
ISBN 0646409174
‘Alter Ego’, ‘The Glass Jar’, ‘At Mornington’, ‘Prize-Giving’, ‘Father and Child (Parts I
& II)’, ‘The Violets’

Anthology of short stories

INTRODUCTION: CONTEXTUALISING GWEN HARWOOD

Biographical information
Born at Taringa, Queensland, Gwen Harwood was raised in Brisbane. Her wide-ranging
interests include literature, philosophy and music – she was organist at All Saints Church
in Brisbane. In 1945 the poet married William Harwood, an academic linguist, and moved,
albeit reluctantly, to Tasmania. It was there that she found her lifelong passion for the
work of Ludwig Wittgenstein. The philosopher’s influence colours Harwood’s entire
‘opus’. An early poem appeared in Meanjin 1944, her poems, stories, critical essays and
reviews have appeared regularly in a diversity of Australian journals since the early 1960s.
‘She has written libretti for composers Larry Sitsky, James Penberthy, Don Kay, and Ian
Cugley as well as other occasional words for music. Beginning from her “deep inner
necessity ... to realise in words the moments that gave my life meaning”, Harwood came
to believe conversely with Wittgenstein in “the power of poetry to infuse experience with
value.” The distinctive and impressive poetry which has emerged from these beliefs has
led to an increasing critical and ... popular attention.’
Harwood’s first volume, called simply, Poems, appeared in 1963. Since then there have
been only one and a half more books – Poems: Volume tow in 1968, and Selected Poems, in
1975. Gwen Harwood made her debut when she was forty-three, married and the mother
of four children. Harwood’s honours include: The Meanjin Poetry Prize in 1958 and 1959,

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the Grace Leven Poetry Prize in 1975; The Robert Frost Award, 1977; and the Patrick
White Literary Award, 1978. She received an honorary D.Litt. from the University of
Tasmania, 1988, and, in 1994, an honorary doctorate from the University of Queensland
and Latrobe University. Bone Scan won the Victorian Premiers’ Literary Award and J. J.
Bray Award, 1990; Blessed City won the Age Book of the Year Award, 1990. *All quotes
are from Elizabeth Lawson, The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (2nd ed),
OUP 1994 (pp.349-51). http://dargo.vicnet.net.au/ozlit/writers.cfm
Gwen Harwood died in 1995 in Hobart

The following aspects of Harwood’s historical, social and cultural contexts could be
investigated by students. The content below is a starting point only. It is important that
students not only consider Harwood’s context but their own context and to keep in mind
the syllabus emphasis on meaning as a dynamic activity that is as much concerned with
them as responders as it is with the composer. Students as responders are not an
homogenous group necessarily. They need to reflect on how aspects of their own context
– their gender, age, cultural and social background – might influence their response to the
poetry.

 Historical Context
Harwood wrote in the postwar (WW2) period of Australia. (Publication dates are shown
in the previous section). This period writing was dominated politically by the era of Robert
Menzies as Liberal Prime Minister and his Liberal Party successors. It was an economically
prosperous but socially conservative era. However, it was also a period of enormous
change:
o postwar European migration
o increasingly unpopular Australian involvement in the Vietnam war
 Literary and other influences
o Romanticism
Harwood describes herself as a Romantic and certainly her invocation of the
role of the artistic imagination in transcending the concrete reality of our lives,
finds resonance in the poetry of Keats. This transcendent power of the artistic
imagination is ‘as crucial to an understanding of Gwen Harwood’s poetry as it
is to a reading of Coleridge..’1.
o Modernism
Harwood is clearly as well a poet of the 20th century. In her depiction of a world
that chills and defeats: ‘the lost world of the Surrounded One – in which the
artist, the thinker and the lover never meet or connect or understand each
other’s role in the universe, is very like that of the twentieth-century
absurdists.’2 The sense of existential loneliness inhabits many of her
protagonists. Her exploration of the ‘interior’ is replete with Freudian and
Jungian allusions as she attempts to represent the imaginary, the inner self
rather than the external, measurable world. The dichotomy between public and
private notions of space and time is essentially modernist in its articulation. In
poems such as ‘At Mornington’, and ‘Father and Child’, she traverses a life
time within a ‘moment’ of ‘real’ or public time – standing with her friend at the
gravesite, walking with her elderly father.
o the philosophy of Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was a German philosopher who
philosophised about the relationship between language and ‘reality’ and the
degree to which we can exist or make sense of ‘reality’ outside of the language
that we use. For Wittgenstein, the meaning of language is not dependent on
linking the word or phrase referentially to things in the world; rather meaning
depends on social acceptance of the ‘rules’ by which language can work. Like

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 the rules of a game, Wittgenstein argued, these rules for the use of ordinary
language are neither right nor wrong, neither true nor false: they are merely
useful for the particular applications in which we apply them. The members of
any community— accountants, students, or rap musicians, for example—
develop ways of speaking that serve their needs as a group, and these constitute
the language-game. Human beings at large constitute a greater community
within which similar, though more widely-shared, language-games get played.
While students do not need to closely study this philosophy, it is important for
them to at least understand the way in which it affected Harwood’s poetic
explorations. There are direct allusions in several of Harwood’s poems to
Wittgenstein. In the late poem, ‘Thought is surrounded by a Halo’.
Wittgenstein’s strangely beautiful assertion provides the title and the
inspiration for such lines as: ‘Language is not a perfect game/and if it were,
how could we play?’. 3
Music
Harwood’s training and interest in music (she learned privately, became
organist at All Saints’ Church on Wickham Terrace, taught music, trained with
her family who were all competent musicians, wrote librettos, dedicated various
poems to musicians Larry Sitsky and Rex Hobcroft) is evident in both the
musical allusions in her poems and in her emphasis on the aural quality of her
poems.. ‘I think all my writing has been influenced by the fact that I was a
trained musician. Perhaps something about working in a fugal form…that is,
starting with a simple idea and carrying it through with all kinds of harmonies
changing underneath it..’.4

 Critical evaluation
o Harwood’s awards are identified in the biographical section of these notes.
o the Tassie house-wife poet
‘I feel that I have been handicapped by being the poet-housewife figure: you
know, how she can make a nice apricot sponge and write poetry too. There is
a savage, nasty part lurking somewhere down there, and yet this is part of the
kind mother too.’5 While reviews of Harwood are often prefaced by such
attributes as ‘mother, gardener, pianist..’, she has attracted widespread critical
and popular attention. In her 1975 interview with John Beston she responded
to his question about the relatively slow recognition of her by Australian critics
in the following way: ‘It seems odd to me that things I wrote over ten years
ago are now receiving attention. But it doesn’t bother me. When I started to
write I thought that perhaps I’d just be known as the writer of an occasional
poem, but being received as “A Poet” has been beyond my wildest dreams. I
don’t think of myself as “A Poet” , just as a woman. We must all be grateful of
course to Judith Wright who paved the way for women to write in Australia.’6
 the Bulletin Literary hoax
Gwen Harwood’s delight in challenging a smug and complacent world is both
evident in her poems as well as in her 1961 literary hoax. At that time, The
Bulletin was a magazine with some literary pretensions and Harwood hoaxed
the magazine into accepting two acrostic poems: the initial letters of the lines
in one poem reading: ‘So long, Bulletin’, the initial letters in the other forming
a remark about editors that was considered terse, unflattering and even
obscene, causing the publishers to withdraw the whole edition and reprint.
‘The Bulletin’s belated response to her two acrostic sonnets, written under the
pseudonym, Walter Lehmann, wholly vindicated Harwood’s double point
about editors’ prejudice against women poets and farcical incompetence as
poetry readers.’7

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Overall Thematic concerns and literary style
 conscious and significant selection of a voice
 a poet of human subjects rather than of the outside world
 love particularly non platonic love and how this can overcome the passing of time and
the ravages of death
 the arts of poetry and music, and the relationships that exist between them as well as
their function
 the nature of memory
 a poetry of place
 juxtaposition of the grotesque and absurd with the ordinary routine, suburban reality
 adherence to traditional forms – metre, rhyme, stanzas, conventional syntax and
punctuation
 a poetry of growth, reflection, expansiveness and spontaneity

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Teaching/learning Activities on Gwen Harwood

The Glass Jar

Initial discussion about fears of the dark then in groups, students will be given statements
of explanation for each of the seven stanzas. They will need to match the statement to the
stanza. They then summarise the subject matter of the poem by expanding on statements.
In groups, annotate particular features of language (eg one group will focus on metaphor);
each group present to class. Students will need a brief explanation of Freud’s ideas on the
unconscious and the Oedipus myth. While this can be very complex to for students, they
can just be told that Freud explained the development of sexual identity in terms of rivalry
and eventual identification with the same sex parent.
They may also need explanation of the following Christian religious terms
Host: this refers to the communion wafer or host in Christian rituals. It symbolises the
body of Christ and is fundamental to Christian and Catholic rituals. For Catholics, it
doesn’t just represent the body of Christ but is the body of Christ.
Monstrance: in Roman Catholic ritual, it is the sacred vessel chalice in which the
consecrated host is exposed to the congregation for adoration.

1. Before the reading of the poem:

Why are little children often frightened of the dark?
What kinds of nightmares do little children sometimes have?
What do parents do to comfort them?
How do parents sometimes disappoint their children?

2. Reading the poem

Read the poem in groups and then try to match the following statements with the
appropriate stanza
(a) when he falls asleep, the little boy has a nightmare, filled with devilish figures and
monsters

(b) he sees his parents making love but does not understand what he sees and is
frightened

(c) the jar is like a magical or religious instrument to the child that he thinks will
prevent the terrors of the night attacking him

(d) in the morning, rather than feeling relieved, the child wakes to disappointment

(e) a child is frightened of the dark and keeps a glass jar that has been kept all day in
the sun, beside his bed

(f) back in bed, his nightmare continues but this time his father is the monstrous
figure

(g) He wakes up and remembers his glass jar. But it is of no use and he runs through
the darkened house to his parents’ bedroom

RESPONDING AND COMPOSING

3. Summarise in your own words the subject matter of the poem. You may use and
expand on the statements above.
4. Annotate on A3 sheets the range of poetic devices and their effects.

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 You may consider some of the following: symbolism; metaphor; personification;
contrast; allusion; emotive language; strong verbs etc (check the glossary if you need
to). This activity can be done in groups
5. Write a glossary to accompany the poem, explaining the meaning and significance of
the religious and cultural allusions.
6. Discuss the ideas in the poem and reflect on your response. For example, how does
Harwood further explore the idea of the divided self in this poem? In Alter Ego, the
persona confronted her alter ego. In this poem, there is a similar division in this poem
between the conscious/waking world and that of the unconscious (dreams and
nightmares). To what extent do you agree with this estimation of Harwood’s poetry:
that it is characterised by, ‘the sudden juxtaposition – grotesque, absurd, violent,
beautiful, disturbing, or simply funny – of the quotidian, the ordinary routine suburban
reality in which most of us have to spend our lives, with the completely unexpected.’8?

7. Textual de- and re-centring. Using approaches suggested by Rob Pope, 9 critically
intervene in the poem to explore the degree to which there are different readings
possible. What does the boy’s realisation (as represented in the poem) mean to him, to
his parents, to you the reader, to the omniscient narrator?
o Compose either journal entries, monologues, interviews to represent these
responses. Reflect on the different significance of events for each of these
participants.
o Write a parallel text in which you describe in prose the experience of the
young child. From whose point of view will you write?
o Write a counter text in which you alter the tone. You could make the poem
a humorous, light hearted sketch. Who would your audience be? (a
parenting manual?)
o Write a post–text that represents the child five, ten, twenty years after the
event, reflecting on its significance.

Prize-Giving
The fictional protagonist of this poem, Professor Eisenbart, is the subject of a series of
suite of Harwood poems. The use of such fictional protagonists (eg Krote) is an example
of Harwood’s masking; that is, her ‘conscious and significant selection of voice and a way
of experiencing which is not autobiographically necessitated.’ 10 Questions of personality
are left beyond; we are not searching for the ‘truth’ in terms of Harwood’s life or direct
experience. The convincing fictional protagonist, Eisenbart, reminds the reader perhaps of
J. Alfred Prufrock (TS Eliot). In each case, the pretentiousness and lack of perception and
judgement are seen as crippling and debilitating, yet the reader is left to sympathise or at
least pity the ‘sage fool’. (you should ask at this point – which reader? Do you fell pity or
sympathy?) Harwood subjects the academic elites to ironic scrutiny by revealing the fragile
basis of Eisenbart’s pomposity. Eisenbart’s name is an English translation of the German,
‘grey beard’ and signals Harwood’s ironic purpose.

While it is not essential, it might be useful for students to read some of the other Eisenbart
poems, along with some of the Krote series.

The first half of poem is provided and students assess the character of Eisenbart this part of the poem.
They will describe and contrast him with the teachers/students in two contrasting columns. They will then
be given the second half as a cloze task. Missing words will be supplied and students in groups will complete
the poem. Students will be questioned about how Harwood contrasts Eisenbart in the second half of the
poem through imagery; word choice; oxymoron etc They will write an extended paragraph about the final
stanza showing the reversal of power depicted.

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1. Read the first part of this poem by Harwood. The protagonist of the poem is an
academic, Professor Eisenbart, who has been invited to attend a girls’ school speech
night.
(This part of the poem is the first 3 stanzas and mid way into the 4th, ending with the words,
‘…Headmistress’ opening prayer’)

2. What is your impression of this protagonist? How would you describe him up to this
point? Think about the words and images that best depict him. List them in the
following left-hand column. Then in the right-hand column, list the words and images
that depict the attitudes of the teachers and students at the school.

Professor Eisenbart Students and teachers

3. Now read the second part of the poem and fill in the missing words provided below.
When you have completed the cloze exercise in groups, we will share the responses
and the reasons for your choices as part of a whole class discussion.

‘But underneath a __________ (no accident

of seating, he felt sure), with titian hair
one girl sat ____________at him, her hand bent
under her chin in ______________ of his own.

Speeches were made and prizes given. He shook

Indifferently a host of ____________hands.
‘Music!’ The girl with __________ hair stood up,
_________at a stocking, ___________ at near-by friends,
and stood before him to receive a cup
of silver chased with curious __________. He took

her hand, and felt its voltage____________ his hold

from his _______age and power; ______ her strange
______, against reason dark, to take his stare
with her to the piano, there to change
her ____________ schoolgirl’s for a __________ air.
He _____________ his rose-hot dream as Mozart told

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the fullness of all passion or _____________
summoned by _____________ hands. The music ended,
Eisenbart ______________ his gown while others clapped,
and ____________ into a trophy which suspended
his image upside down: a ________ fool _________
by __________ in a ______________ net of hair.

Copper, music, peered, arrogant, sage, teased, despair, forged, master’s, virgin, light, casual, titian, trapped,
grinning, hitched, calm, mockery, winked, fling, suffered, eyes, curious

4. Now complete the following exercises:

a. The second part of the poem signals a change with the use of the word. ‘but’ and
the reference to the ‘titian-haired’ girl. What is different about this girl compared
to the rest of the assembly? (Choose words, images that suggest her individuality)
b When she stood up to receive her prize for music, there is reference to hands for the
second time in the poem. In the first part of the poem, Harwood describes Eisenbart
indifferently shaking a ‘host of virgin hands’. However, when he ‘took’ the hand of the
titian haired girl, he ‘felt its voltage fling his hold/ from his calm age and power.’ Work
through the following exercise in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the metaphor used
here.
Tenor Ground Vehicle
(what is being described) (basis of comparison) (what it is being compared to)

How does this metaphor effectively capture the effect on Eisenbart of the titian-haired girl?

5. How is metonymy used effectively in the choice of name of Eisenbart (German for grey
beard)?
6. How do the relative positions of power of the professor and the student continue to change
in the second last stanza?

7. The final stanza again refers to ‘hands’. This time they are the ‘arrogant’ hands of the student.
What is the effect of her piano playing on Eisenbart? How do we know?

8. Complete the following paragraph:

The final four lines of the poem encapsulate the reversal of power between the professor and the
student through clever choice of words and effective imagery. The ‘honoured guest’ described in
the first part of the poem is now ______________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

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 ________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

9. A feminist perspective or reading of this poem would interrogate the relationship

between gender and power in this poem and the degree to which the traditional basis of
power is supported or subverted. Students could attribute the following values
represented in the poem to either the ‘male’ or ‘female : wisdom, experience, authority,
respect, subservience, obedient, virginity, sexuality, age, youth, intellect, emotion, status.
This allocation needs to be justified through textual reference.

Male (as typified by Eisenbart) Female (as typified by the students & teachers)

Now read through the table and discuss in groups those qualities that are more highly
valued – either at the time of the poem’s publication, or now. To what degree does the
titian-haired girl conform to or challenge dominant feminine qualities? How do you
respond to her? Why does she seem to challenge Eisenbart so dramatically? Do you have
any sympathy with Professor Eisenbart? Who/what is the target of criticism in this
poem?

RESPONDING AND COMPOSING

9. Write an item (200 words) suitable for the school newsletter advising parents about
the speech night and Professor Eisenbart’s guest attendance.
10. Write a comment for the titian-haired girl to appear underneath her photo in the
annual school magazine. (50 words)
11. Re-contextualise the poem, by changing the gender of the school students. Imagine
Eisenbart is attending the neighbouring boys’ school speech night. How would this
change the dynamic described in the original version of ‘Prizegiving’? Write an
argument that shows how an understanding of the relationship between gender and
power is central to this poem.

At Mornington
At Mornington: Students to identify the different memories included here and how each is connected to water.
Focus questions on symbolic use of water and light in depicting changing self.

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 Was taken – passive
They told me that when I was taken voice here suggests
I leapt – active voice in the poet’s lack of
contrast to earlier passive control of events
to the sea’s edge, for the first time,
voice indicates poet
embracing life
I leapt from my father’s arms
This simile suggests
and was caught by a wave and rolled both the literal
turbulence of the sea and
perhaps of life itself
like a doll among rattling shells;

and I seem to remember my father

The father’s mixed feelings –
fear at what might have
happened; relief that she’s
alive
fully clothed, still streaming with water
half comforting, half angry.
and indeed I remember believing
as a child, I could walk on water –
While the poet is unsure of the actual
events – I seem to remember – she is
sure of her childhood feelings of
unfailing optimism – ‘indeed I
remember’

the next wave, the next wave –

it was only a matter of balance.

This stanza begins with very literal references to water as the poet recalls a memory from
childhood. The fragile and sometimes unreliable nature of memory is indicated in the first
line by the phrase ‘They told me’. Our memories are often shaped by the stories that
others tell us about our past – particularly our early childhood days. While the actual details
of the event are ‘blurred’ the poet is definite about the feelings she had in early childhood
that she ‘could walk on water’. This indicates the boundless optimism of the child that she
could do anything. The words refer literally to water in this stanza are: sea, wave, streaming,
water. Biblical allusions are suggested by the reference to being able to ‘walk on water’.
The contrast between the active and passive voice reflects the shift in the poet from the
passivity (carried and protected in her father’s arm) to activity or independence (I leapt).
The poet’s memory about the first time at the sea is then a springboard for a more general
reflection on her childhood feelings – ‘.I remember believing/as a child..’.

The literal references to water in the

Iridescent – rainbow-like; the many-
coloured appearance caused by the
interference effect of light rays striking
the outer and inner surface layers of
various bodies.
Fugitive – transient; escaping or escaped.
Both words capture the fleeting, fragile
but striking nature of memory.
On what flood are they borne,
these memories of early childhood
iridescent, fugitive
1st stanza now become metaphorical
with this reference to the ‘flood’ of
memories. The word, ‘borne’
reminds us of the cycle of life –
together with ref. to ‘childhood’,
‘middle age’, ‘dead’, ‘grave’
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Cadences – rhythmic or measured flow or
movement, as in poetry or music. A
succession of chords naturally closing a
musical phrase or period.
This combines perhaps both the sounds of
the breeze through the trees as well as the
sense of funereal sounds to commemorate
the dead.
as light in a sea-wet shell,
while we stand, two friends of middle age,
by your parents’ grave in silence
among avenues of the dead
with their cadences of trees,
marble and granite parting
the quick of autumn grasses.
The present moment or
context. Shift from 1st person
singular to 1st person plural,
‘we’. Contrast with the
memories of the past, of
childhood
Quick – living. Contrast between the
image of the living autumn grasses and
cadences of trees with the avenues of the
dead and the inanimate marble and
granite graves.

we have the wholeness of this day

The value of the present moment; the
awareness that this is perhaps all we
have - ‘the wholeness of this day’. to share as we will between us.
Wholeness could refer to the literal
sense of the hours of the day, as well as
the sense of appreciation of all that
these two friends have to share – their
‘whole ‘ lives

The second stanza establishes the actual context of the poem – the poet and her friend at

the graveside of her friend’s parents. This occasion for remembering the dead seems to

trigger reflections on the ‘quick’ or the living; on the cycle of life. Memories seem to be a

key to the way we make sense of life and it is the nature of memories that seems to puzzle

the poet – from where do they come? Why do we remember particular incidents or

feelings? She compares the nature of memory to something as fleeting or transient as the

rainbow-like light passing through a sea-wet shell when held up to the sun. There is a real

sense, then, of celebrating what we have – the present moment- with good friends who

can share ‘the wholeness of this day’.

The poet thinks back to ‘this morning’ of

this particular day and chooses a very This morning I saw in your garden
ordinary, domestic image of pumpkins
growing on a trellis to describe and fine pumpkins grown on a trellis
reflect upon.

so it seemed that the vines were rising

Shift from ‘water’ to air as another
element of nature. There is a contrasting
to flourish the fruits of earth
and almost comic image of large, heavy
pumpkins suspended on vines, above their humble station
weightlessly, in ‘airy defiance’ of their
quite sizeable weight.
The poet describes this as ‘rising above their
humble station’ – exceeding expectations of 12
what they can be.
This image of the pumpkins is described as a
parable (a narrative making a moral or
 in airy defiance of nature

- a parable of myself, The poet’s comparison with all other

a skinful of elements climbing
from earth to the fastness of light;
living things is captured in the
description of herself as a ‘skinful of
elements’. The journey or cycle of life is
compared to the vines climbing from
(dark) earth to the light.

Words that suggest the final now come to that time of life Fastness here can mean
stages of life – ‘that time of life’; ‘constant’, steadfast, resistant.
‘our bones’; ‘wear’; ‘settle’; when our bones begin to wear us,
‘final’. Quite a contrast to the
previous image of the ‘fruits’ of
the earth which ‘flourish’. The to settle our flesh in final shape
use of the plural pronoun, ‘our’,
links the poet’s story with
humanity generally.

In this stanza, the poet draws our attention to a particular moment in this day she is sharing
with her friend – this morning in the garden. The poet uses the ordinary and quite
‘Australian’ image of a suburban garden with pumpkins growing on a trellis to reflect on
her own time of life. There is something she sees in common with the ‘airy defiance’ of
the heavy pumpkins supported by the vines growing on a trellis and reaching maturity –
‘that time of life’. On the one hand, there is a sense of humility in describing herself as a
‘skinful of elements’ – reminding us of what we have in common with all life forms. There
is also a sense of ‘triumph’ in the comparison. Presumably if the pumpkins in their airy
defiance are a parable, then she too has perhaps grown beyond or ‘above’ her ‘humble
station. This doesn’t necessarily mean that she has achieved external success but more that
she has survived all that life has thrown her since she was first caught by its wave and
‘rolled like a doll’ among its rattling shells.

Comparison of the individual’s

evolution or growth to maturity
as the drying face of land
with the earth’s evolution.
rose out of earth’s seamless waters.

I dreamed once, long ago,

that we walked among day-bright flowers

The poet’s dream (long ago) of a
‘whole day’ shared with her friend,
talking and drinking the water is a to a bench in the Brisbane gardens
dream about the rejuvenating quality
and power of their friendship. The with a pitcher of water between us,
reference to a dream from long ago,
suggests something about the link
between dreams and the collective and stayed for a whole day
human consciousness or psyche.
talking, and drinking the water.

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 Then, as night fell, you said

‘There is still some water left over.’

We have one day, only one,

but more than enough to refresh us.
The word, ‘refresh’, ties in with
the images of the pitcher, the
water, drinking and alludes to the
image at the beginning of the
stanza of the ‘drying face of land’.
Friendship, like, ‘water’, is
healing, restorative

The simile at the beginning of this stanza connects the human experience of changing and
ageing to the evolutionary development of life on earth: ‘the drying face of the land/rose
out of earth’s seamless waters’. There is a sense of triumph through the choice of the
word, ‘rose’, and it also recalls the pumpkin vines ‘rising’ above their humble station. The
indented section of this stanza takes us back further into the past as the poet recalls a
dream from ‘long ago’. While the phrase ‘long ago’ suggests a time far away or a myth or
story, the content of the dream is the contemporary context of the poet and her friend
spending a day in Brisbane gardens. The poet dreams the day as one in which they were
renewed and restored through life-giving water. They ‘drink’ the water but there is still
some ‘left over’.
The poet returns to the current moment with an awareness of the provisional but precious
nature of life. The stress is on ‘one day, only one’ that they have but the awareness of what
this day offers to them which is ‘more than enough’ to refresh them.

Return to the present moment but with a

At your side among the graves changed feeling. She compares how she
feels with the security and happiness she
I think of death no more felt as a child in her father’s arms.

than when, secure in my father’s arms,

I laughed at a hollowed pumpkin

with candle flame for eyesight,

and when I am seized at last
The word, ‘rolled’ connects with the 1st
stanza and again suggests the
uncontrollable, turbulent nature of life.
Race might refer to the whole human race
or to the idea of life as a race

and rolled in one grinding race

Generic human experience
(both positive and tragic) is
captured in the series of nouns
– ‘dreams, pain,
memories…..grief’.
of dreams, pain, memories, love and grief,
from which no hand will save me,
Contrast between the father’s saving
hands in the first stanza and the
inevitability of death from which
‘no hand’ can rescue 14her.
 The peace of this day will shine
Rather than reflect on loss and
sadness associated with death, like light on the face of the waters
the poet celebrates the value of
‘this day’ and her friendship and that bear me away for ever.
compares it to ‘light’ on the face
of the waters. This image of the
water connects with earlier
images of the flood. Think
of the different associations of
water in myth, legend and
religious stories.

15
RESPONDING AND COMPOSING
1. The following list of the words or phrases refer to time in the poem.

The first time

Childhood
Middle age
This day
This morning
That time of life
Once, long ago
Day-bright
A whole day
Night fell
One day, only one
At last
This day
For ever

Why do you think that the poet has stressed time so much in this poem?

2. This poem also makes significant use of contrast.

Birth/death
Youth/old age
Dark/light
Thirst-dryness/water
Past/present
Land/sea.

Find the words or images that reflect these contrasts.

3. The poem’s central and recurring images are of water and light. Identify where
and how they are used in the poem. Read the final image:
‘the peace of this day will shine
Like light on the face of the waters
That bear me away for ever.’
While this seems to return to the images from the first part of the poem, there is
also a significant change. How would you describe the changes reflected in this
final image?

4. Through the reference to the natural world, to seasons, time of day, Harwood makes
connections between human experience and life in general. Both are characterised by
recurring cycles of life and death. The individual experience also seems to be
connected to the wider human experience through dreams, stories, parables, myths.
Individual memories become part of the wider human tapestry of experience. Draw
a visual symbol that represents this cyclic nature of change. Annotate the symbol
and then write a paragraph explaining how this applies particularly to the poem, ‘At
Mornington’.

16
Father and Child11
Students will initially be given a summary of content and ideas of poem. The symmetry of this poem and
its effect on meaning will be explored through analysing Harwood’s use of contrast in terms of structure;
time setting and perspective (eg shift from I and My to we and you). Each group is to present to class a
visual metaphor to show the contrasting perspectives in the poem. Students will be given guiding questions
to prepare for class discussion. Paragraph responses to be completed individually..

Part I Barn Owl

In this first part of the poem, the persona reflects on an incident from her childhood. It
was daybreak and while the rest of the family was asleep, the young daughter secretly took
her father’s rifle into the barn, planning to shoot an owl in the old stables. However, she
only succeeded in injuring the bird and in the midst of her horrific realisation of what she
had inflicted on the owl, her father finds her and insists that she ‘end’ what she had begun.
In other words, he makes her face up to the consequences of her action and to kill the bird
rather than leave it for someone else to do. This section of the poem ends with an image
of her leaning her head upon her father’s arm and weeping for what she had ‘begun’.

Part II Nightfall
This part of the poem is set some 40 years later. Written in present tense, it still involves
the relationship between father and daughter but now the father is 80 years old and quite
frail. He and his daughter enjoy a walk. The father delights still in ‘birds, flowers, shivery
–grass’, while the daughter affectionately reflects on her father’s life and their relationship.
The poem ends with a sense of sad realisation about ‘sorrows’ that ‘no words, no tears can
mend’. This is what the ‘child once quick/ to mischief’ has ‘grown to learn.’

RESPONDING AND COMPOSING

You now need to consider the relationship between each part of the poem. For example,
each part has 7 stanzas and involves the same personae. There are a range of poetic
qualities that also help to link the seemingly contrasting perspectives.

17
2. Examine each stanza in each part and summarise the main idea/s.

Part 1 Barn Owl Part 2 Nightfall

Stanza 1

Stanza 2

Stanza 3

Stanza 4

Stanza 5

Stanza 6

Stanza 7

2. Examine the following features of language and compare Parts 1 and 2:

18
(a) What do the titles of each part indicate about the concerns to follow? How do they
work on both a literal and a metaphorical level?

(b) Verb tense. The first part is in past tense and the second in present tense. How does
this shift help to indicate ideas of changing self?

(c) Point of View and its effects. Identify how this shifts between each section and what
the effects are.

(d) Parallel and contrasting images/words/lines. Examine the following examples in

the poem and explain their use and effect:

Let him dream of a child /Let us walk for this hour

I leaned my head upon my father’s arm /link your dry hand in mine
To dream light’s useless time away /now the season that seemed/incredible is come
Master of life and death /as if death had no power
And wept/Owl-blind in early sun /in the end, no words, no tears can mend
Daybreak /sunset
My father’s arm /my stick-thin comforter
Old No-sayer, robbed of power by sleep /Old King, your marvellous journey’s done
A lonely/child who believed death clean and final /things truly named can never/ vanish
from this earth

(e) Imagery- images of death; images of life; images of the child and the father

(f) Rhyming structure and rhythm – how do these features help to balance and link
each section?

Exploring the poem from a postmodernist perspective

While Harwood’s poem could not be described as a postmodern text, it can be read from
a postmodern perspective. Think back to the illustration of the rhizome and the idea of
lateral connections between texts as opposed to deep foundations that reflect timeless
values. ‘Father and Child’ is constructed consciously, or unconsciously, via a range of
different texts.
• Most obvious is the repeated reference to King Lear – through the appellation ‘Old
king’, through reference to Lear’s age (eighty years), through quoting Lear’s words
to Cordelia (‘Be your tears wet?’), through allusions to blindness and seeing
(Gloucester). In fact, understanding these intertextual connections helps the reader
decide that the child is the daughter rather than the son.
• Other Shakespearean references are brief but recognisable:
– ‘Ripeness is plainly all’ is a direct allusion to King Lear but is also an echo of
Hamlet’s words to Horatio (‘the readiness is all’). This acceptance of fate is the
response to Horatio’s warning about the dangers of the impending duel with
Laertes, which he fears Hamlet is destined to lose.
– The reference to death as sleep appears in many texts. Lady Macbeth equates
sleep and death when she upbraids her husband for his fear on looking at the

19
 results of his bloody work (‘give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead are
but as pictures’), and Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, ‘To be, or not to be’, suggests
at first that, if death were like sleep, it would be welcomed.
• The varied, diverse and contradictory symbolism of the owl informs the poem in
interesting ways. In most cultures of the world, the owl is traditionally associated
with night, darkness and death. For the ancient Greeks, the owl was the bird sacred
to Athena, the goddess of wisdom. As her companion, it perched on her shoulder
and revealed unseen truths to her.
• The reference ‘old No-Sayer’ alludes to Milton’s epic poem about Samson, who was
robbed of his strength but had it subsequently returned to him, whereupon he pulled
down the pillars that supported the temple of the Philistine god Dagon.
• Echoes of biblical texts are also found: about Eve, the Prodigal Son, the stern God
the Father of the Old Testament, and the loving God the Father of the New
Testament.
A postmodernist reading sees the poem as an echo of aspects of different texts rather
than a transparent reflection of the world of the poet or of the reader. It stresses the
fractured rather than coherent nature of the poem:
• the owl as symbol of both death and wisdom
• the relationship between father and child as intertextually connected to other
difficult parent–child relationships in literature, most notably to those in King Lear
• the absence of the feminine, in terms of both the literal absence of a mother figure
and the death of the owl by the gun, symbol of patriarchal power
• the persona herself as being inherently fragmented: the concluding lines remind us
of an emptiness that can never be filled.

There are many ways of creatively and critically commenting on a text other than by essay.
For this activity, gather a diverse range of related materials: information about some of the
allusions in ‘Father and Child’, relevant extracts from Shakespearean plays, visual images,
critical commentary on the poem written by yourself or others, quotations from other
poems by Gwen Harwood.
Once you have gathered the material, organise it in a way that highlights the
intertextual connections that give the poem meaning.

20
 MOTHER WHO GAVE ME LIFE
Before reading the poem:
The elegy
Research the elegy as a poetic form

o Find some famous examples to read in groups–
eg. Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”,
W H Auden’s “Funeral Blues”, Slessor’s “Five Bells”.

o Discuss how they demonstrate the possibilities offered by this form and
present your findings to the class.

Research the main stages in the evolution of man and the place of the lemur in
this. 

What is Halley’s Comet? 

What can you find out about ideas of a secret language belonging to women 


After reading the poem: 


Questions to discuss in groups to help you work through the poem: 


How effective is the title of the poem? 

Explain what the poem is about. 

Who is speaking in the poem? 

Explain the paradox, “I think of women bearing women”. 

What is the tone of the speaker in stanza one? How is the speaker’s
attitude 
 conveyed? 

Explain the distinction made by the speaker in stanza two. 

How does the use of enjambment through stanzas two, three and
four contribute 
 to the meaning? 

What is meant by, “the guileless milk of the word”? 

Explain the reference to Halley’s Comet. 

How do the words of the Sister convey pathos? 

What do you understand by, “a fabric of marvels”? 

Explain the symbolism in the “ward door of heavy glass” 

What is conveyed of the mother’s character in stanza eight? 

Harwood uses a chain of domestic imagery. List these images and
comment on the effect. 

This poem is an elegy to her mother but also goes beyond that.
Explain 


Commentary - some ideas for interpreting “Mother who gave Me Life”


“Mother Who Gave Me Life” is a moving personal elegy on the death of her mother but
also a tribute to Harwood’s mother as a representative of the strong women who have
21
lived since the beginning of time. The poem contains a poignant personal memory of the
poet’s last sight of her mother through the heavy glass door of the ward in the hospital
where she died.
The persona, clearly Harwood, begins with a formal address to her mother, acknowledging
that, in giving her life, her mother gave her the greatest of all possible gifts. The register of
the language is elevated, suited to her sense of the dignity and significance of her subject.
She follows this tribute with a contrite plea for forgiveness for her resistance to what her
mother could teach her and which her humility, ironically, reveals she has now learnt.
Stating that the significance of her own life lies with her mother, the strong women of her
own family and their place in the long unbroken chain of mothers since primitive times,
the persona traces the stages of human evolution from lemurs and monkeys through
images representing the ice age, the stone age, the coming of fire and the beginnings of
human language. The word, ‘anguish’, asserts that, throughout time, suffering has been a
constant burden for women.
Harwood suggests that the connection between women has been the “guileless milk of the
word”, the milk symbolising the innocent nurturing role timelessly performed by women
but also signifying a kind of language, which has enabled a continuous thread of
communication from one generation to another – echoing the feminist notion of a special,
separate language women intuitively share, an idea explored in the theories of Julia Kristeva
and in Helene Cixous’s notion of écriture.
The persona recalls her prayers for her mother to live a little longer to witness the periodic
celestial event which is imminent but also reflects on her memory of their last meeting.
Closing the door, as she left the hospital, she saw her mother's face 'crumple' and realised
that her mother was still attempting to protect her from the pain of witnessing her own
grief. In the final lines of the poem Harwood reveals her anguish at her mother’s death but
also the comfort she obtains from the warmth of childhood memories, hinting at their
spiritual overtones.

Themes:
motherhood,continuity/kinship of women
parent/child relationships
changes in attitudes-to mother,to self,the human condition growth of self knowledge
How meaning is made
Form:
elegy
nine, four line, unrhymed stanzas–controlled form of free verse? Enjambment
facilitating free flow of thoughts
Tone:
contrition, respect, admiration, reverence
Mood:
intimate, personal, reflective, sorrowing
Language and techniques:
simple lyrical rhythms
first person point of view
second person pronoun – personal address
retrospective
paradox - 'women bearing women'
cumulation to convey extensive time periods in history
repetition of key word, 'anguish'
pattern of simple images of domesticity - towel, linen, table, lamp
symbolism - eg of 'ward door of heavy glass'; of 'embroidered linen'; “father’s
house”
irony (eg irony of “father’s house” when the poem focuses on the powerful

22
influence of her mother)
allusions - Darwin, bible, cosmic events
individual represents wider group and ideas

READINGS
Personal elegy for poet’s mother
Tribute to women
Feminist rejection of the patriarchy.

23
 MAKING LINKS BETWEEN THE PRESCRIBED HARWOOD POEMS
Students can complete this as a summative activity at the end of the unit.
The Glass Jar
The voice of the 7-year-old boy
narrator/persona and Tone changes stanza by
tone adopted stanza, first is idyllic and
then changes to dark
The apparent centre or Loss of innocence of a
focus of the poem child. Glass jar is a
metaphor for it –
broken from his
realisation
Significance of the title Made of glass and easily
broken
Cultural, religious, Freudian allusion –
literary allusions mother as comforter
and the father is the
rival and is demonised
Oedipus complex
Religious imagery –
devil, resurrected sun,
holy common place,
exercise monsters
The idea of the divided Light and dark
self or dichotomies Good and evil
(opposing ideas)
Imagery
Prize giving Father and Child At Mornington Mother Who Gave
Me Life
Gwen is the third The voice is of a woman The is in Gwen voice +
persons voice who has matured over perspective
time and is accepting of
her future. Tone is
reflective and
melancholy.
The professor fantasies Gwen’s father who had How close Gwen was
and feminist views died, learning to accept with her mother
the unfortunate and
move on as well as
holding onto all the
amazing memories she
has hared with him
Set in an award Morington is a seaside Represents how much
assembly town in Victoria respect she has for her
mother
Allusion of sexual Religious imagery: She prayed that her
fantasy of the school girl “walk on water” is a mother would overcome
in the professors eyes biblical reference her illness
School is supposed to Life and death Life and death
be innocent, but is Past and present
turned into something
not so innocent
“rose hot dream” “the vines were rising to “I think of women
flourish the fruits of bearing women”
Earth” – alliteration
24
Use of Malignant ballet Sexual tension Mixed feeling – Sadness / reflective
contrast/juxtaposition Ravening birds comforting / angry

Aural qualities – rhyme, Enjambment Alliteration Free verse, enjambment Enjambment is used to
rhythm, alliteration etc dramatize the memories

Representation of From the fear of the Breaking free from Breaking free from her Her mother broke free
Breaking Free dark and innocence superior parochial father’s death from her illness
mindset Gwen is escaping her
mourning and reflecting
on her mother’s
cherished memorises

25
Teaching resources prepared by

Maree Herrett MA Dip Ed

References:
Gwen Harwood, Selected Poetry
RF Brissenden, A Fire-Talented Tongue: Some Notes on the Poetry of Gwen Harwood, Southerly, Vol 38 No 1,
March 1978
Norman Talbot, Truth Beyond the Language Game: The Poetry of Gwen Harwood. Australian Literary Studies,
John Beston, An Interview with Gwen Harwood, Quadrant, Vol 19, No 7 1975
Gwen Harwood in Conversation with Stephanie Trigg (Melbourne Age Writers’ Festival, 2002):
http://www.mwf.com.au/arc92harwood.html

1
Norman Talbot, Truth Beyond the Language Game: The Poetry of Gwen Harwood, Australian Literary
Studies, p 248
2
Norman Talbot, Truth Beyond the Language Game: The Poetry of Gwen Harwood, Australian Literary
Studies, p 253
3
Extract from ‘Thought Is Surrounded by a Halo’, Gwen Harwood, Selected Poems, A&R Modern Poets
1975, p108
4
John Beston, An interview with Gwen Harwood, Quadrant, Vo 19, No.7, October 1975, P 85
5
John Beston, P 88
6
Ibid., p 88
7
Elizabeth Lawson, The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (2nd ed), OUP 1994 (pp.349-51).
http://dargo.vicnet.net.au/ozlit/writers.cfm
8
RF Brissenden, A Fire-talented Tongue: Some Notes on the Poetry of Gwen Harwood’, Southerly, Vol
38, No 1, March 1978, p 3
9
Rob Pope, Textual Intervention: Critical and Creative Strategies for Literary Studies, Routledge, London,
1995
10
Norman Talbot, Truth Beyond the Language Game: The Poetry of Gwen Harwood, Australian Literary
Studies, p 241
11
Some of the suggested approaches for this poem have been taken from the writer’s own publication,
Textual Journeys (Herrett, Kelliher and Simons), Nelson Thomson publishers

26