Summary Of Up The Wall By Gwen Harwood

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Up the Wall’ by Bruce Dawe and ‘In the Park’ by Gwen Harwood both explore the idea of personal limitation, the loss of identity and love that accompanies maternal and domestic responsibility through poetic structure as well as conventions such as dialogue and imagery. Both poems employ the dehumanising impact of a third person persona where the use of “She” illustrates the mother’s universal sense of alienation and drudgery, that is further emphasised through the miserable and desperate tones of the poem. The incorporation of a generalised, impersonal pronoun adds to the evident struggle of separating the anonymous woman’s maternal identity from her identity as an individual. The poem ‘In the Park’ by Gwen Harwood is constructed in the form of a Petrarchan sonnet with an iambic pentameter and a rhyme scheme of ‘ABBA’, which rhythmically recants the story of “former …show more content…

However, despite both sonnets adhering to the traditional structure, the ideologies within the poems are divergent to the familiar themes explored within this medium. Sonnets traditionally have the implied meaning of beauty and love, yet both poems portray an anti-romantic stance and depicts love as lonesome. They instead focus on the mundane and insignificant aspects of domesticity that can restrict and challenge a mother’s personal identity. The consistent enjambment within the poem ‘In the Park’ further emphasises this idea, where the line ending with “too late” continues in the next stanza, reflecting upon the significant moment and a hurried relationship that has changed her life. The anti-romantic stance is also portrayed when “they stand a while in flickering light”, symbolising the waning of their romance and the shared matrimonial ties. The love between the former lovers has diminished and the women’s belief in love is no longer

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