Text 1 (Poem) Analysis
Suburban Sonnet by Gwen Harwood
Gwen Harwood’s ‘Suburban Sonnet’ is a fourteen line poem with strong values of urban Australia. The poem; a sonnet idealizes the harsh realities of a housewife, creating sympathetic tones to the readers. Harwood’s clever use of symbolism creates greater depth to her work which therefore questions the audience. The form of the poem (which has a criterion and is constrained) shows the creative input of Harwood, which works very well with the context of the sonnet (the housewife’s life). Together, the uses of these techniques make a strong and moving impact on the readers.
Reality is something that often, many people discard of which this sonnet openly explores. Harwood’s sonnet portrays a negative connotation. The use of narration creates a story-like atmosphere which seems easier to read but it is not hard to forget the harsh realities of a housewife in the city life of Australia. This is seen in line three:
‘Beside her on the floor two children chatter,
They scream and fight. She hushes them. A pot
Boils over…’
The use of many verbs in this line also helps to create a more realistic approach and greater impact to her situation. A sympathetic tone is felt overall in the reader.
Sacrificial actions are many that a mother must make. This is show strongly throughout ‘Suburban Sonnet’. When Harwood writes in the first two lines of her sonnet:
‘She practices a fugue, though it can matter
To no one now if she plays well or not.’
It appears to be that the mother is just an average housewife that has an interest in music but is not good enough to gain much of an audience. These two lines set the tone firmly on what the mood of the poem will turn out to be. It is negative, bitter and melancholic. This appears to the readers that Harwood would like to creative a negative view of motherhood. As for sacrificial, Harwood says in lines nine and ten:
‘…Once she played
For Rubinstein, who yawned…’
This perhaps shows that yes, the housewife did have the talent to have the chance to perform for the great musician but may not have successfully gained his attention due to the lack of practice time she had that she sacrificed for bringing up her children. This again shows a certain viewpoint of Gwen Harwood reflecting on the ‘typical day’ of an urban Australian housewife.
Symbolism is very well used in Harwood’s ‘Suburban Sonnet’. It is not very easily recognized throughout the poem, but once spotted it is not easy to avoid. In lines ten and eleven, Harwood writes:
‘…The children caper
Round a sprung mousetrap where a mouse lies dead.’
On reading level, it appears to be the usual household pest wandering around the house. On a second level, it symbolizes the housewife. Her dreams of becoming a musician are trapped within her own environment. She has sacrificed her own life for the sake of others, she is broken. This evaluates the difficulties and harshness of the urban life through the imagery Harwood has created.
‘Suburban Sonnet’ has been greatly recognized for idealizing a housewife in urban Australia. Whether or not the reader take’s Harwood’s words into literary meaning, looking passed the reality of the housewife is almost impossible. The combination of literary techniques from the structure to symbolism all help to create a common message of an urban housewife.
By Karina Cheung