Gwen Harwood Poems - Quotes Flashcards
‘The Violets’ - Death & Growth
“frail melancholy flowers among / ashes and loam”
‘The Violets’ - Memory (Structure & Quotes)
Enjambment between lines; “Where’s Morning Gone?”
Indentation to represent a past memory. Reflected by past tense verbs.
‘The Violets’ - Death, Time, Change
‘ashes’ & ‘dusk’
‘Ambiguous Light. Ambiguous Sky’
‘melting’
‘death’s disorientating scale’
‘lamplight presences’
‘The Violets’ - Growth
‘spring violets in their loamy bed’
‘At Mornington’ - Cycle of Life, Change, Time
‘the next wave, the next wave’
‘We have only one day, only one, / but more than enough to refresh us.’ (in reference to a shared pitcher of water)
repetition of waves & water, symbolizing time and the flow of memories
‘At Mornington’ - Death
‘by your parents’ grave in silence / among avenues of the dead’
‘in airy defiance of nature’ (reference to pumpkins)
‘come to that time of life / when our bones begin to wear us’
‘At Mornington’ - Childhood, Innocence, Memory
‘as a child, I could walk on water / it was only a matter of balance’
‘Hollowed pumpkin’, child looks at death mocking it, not understanding it
‘no hand hand will save me’
she thinks of ‘death no more’ because she has come to realise inevitable (maturity)
‘Father and Child: Barn Owl’ - Childhood, [loss of] Innocence
‘owl blind in the early sun / for what I had begun’
‘child who believed death clean / and final, not this obscene’
“End what you have begun.” (Father to child in reference to the shot owl)
‘robbed of power / by sleep’ (old no-sayer, father)
‘afraid / by the fallen gun’
‘Father and Child: Barn Owl’ - Death
‘child who believed death clean / and final, not this obscene’
‘master of life and death’
‘punish beak and claw’ - synecdoche - child is cocky in self-assurance & victory
‘urine-scented hay’
‘Father and Child: Nightfall II’ - Memories, Religion, Time
‘time’s long promised land’
‘Forty years, lived or dreamed’
‘ancient innocence’ (in reference to the Fathers old face)
‘Old King, / your marvellous journey’s done.’
‘Daybreak’ Barn Owl vs. title ‘Nightfall’, complete opposites
‘symbols of transience.’ in reference to the sunset
‘Father and Child: Nightfall II’ - Death, Loss
‘as if death had no power’
‘in the end, / no words, no tears can mend.’
‘Your night and day are one’
‘ripeness is plainly all.’
‘The Lion’s Bride’ - Institutions, Marriage, Female Experience
‘warm human’ S1 vs. ‘icy spectre’ S2
‘brute king and tender woman, soul to soul’ (men = masculine, woman = feminine)
‘barefoot in my cage’ (cage of social expectations)
‘scented veil’ & ‘painted lips’ & ‘unreal head’ (lion doesn’t recognise her, forced institutional change due to marriage)
‘Come soon my love, my bride, and share this meal’ (lion doesn’t realise he ate his lover)
Lack of enjambment; shifts mood, tone, time and persona of the woman.
‘her father, faithful keeper, fed me well’, blessing marriage, dowry
‘In The Park’ - Womanhood, Children, Loss of Female Identity
‘Her clothes are out of date’ tied down by her children, no time for herself vs. ‘neat head’ of man
‘Two children whine and bicker, tug her skirt. A third draws aimless patterns in the dirt.’ negative, misbehaving, reader feels apologetic
‘Someone she once loved passes by // too late to feign indifference’, enjambment between lines, vulnerable and exposed
‘but for the grace of god’ man is thankful life has not turned out like the woman’s
‘flickering’, ‘whine’, ‘bicker’ all negatively connoted words, backed by negative imagery and tone in poet’s voice.
‘They have eaten me alive’, physical and emotional drain of children, whispered ‘to the wind’ thus internalizing emotions
‘Father and Child: Barn Owl’ - Religion
‘A horny fiend’
‘child / obedient, angel-mind’
‘blessed by the sun’ (as if baptised)
‘his place on a high beam’
‘not bear the light nor hide’
Owl - symbol of Greek Goddess of Athena, feminine, wisdom and law and order
‘Father and Child: Barn Owl’ - Memory, Dreams
‘Let him dream of a child’
‘to dream / lights useless time away’
