Gwendoline Nessie Harwood’s poem ‘Suburban Sonnet’ aims to commentate on the harsh reality and expectations of motherhood in the 1960’s. This powerful yet convoluted allegorical poem reveals the extreme burdens and strains that women tackled every day. Life for women in the 1960’s was simply just ‘a pot boiling over’ and Gwen Harwood utilizes her vivid recollection of her childhood and parenting to encapsulate and expose what was Australia’s leading problem in the 1960’s.
Gwen Harwood, born as Gwendoline Nessie Harwood was a significant, influential figure in the Australian Society. She was an Australian born poet and librettist who was born on the 8th of June 1920 in a small town called Taringa of Brisbane, Queensland. Gwen Harwood had the poem ‘Suburban Sonnet’ published in the mid 1960’s under the pseudonym Miriam Stone. She unfortunately passed away on the 5th of December 1995 due to cancer.
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In the early 1960’s Harwood published many poems under her several pseudonyms. Many debated her use of pseudonyms claiming her use of mostly male names was only to get around editorial prejudice against women poems. nonetheless, Harwood continued to challenge this common belief by letting the public know her use of pseudonyms was only to see her powerful poetry reach millions of people.
In ‘Suburban Sonnet’ Gwen Harwood has aimed to create a subtle yet powerful protest against the stereotypical roles that the Australian Society establishes on woman. Her writing was deeply influenced by her upbringing and her tenacious political, societal and cultural beliefs. Harwood depicts the harsh realities and disregard of Australian motherhood while emphasizing the despair and disappointment brought in being a Suburban ‘desperate’ housewife. It holds immense amounts of social commentary and Harwood intended for the audience to understand the burdens carried when bearing children.
All throughout ‘Suburban Sonnet' Gwen Harwood has utilized numerous literary devices with the intention to captivate the audience and confront them with the truth of the 1960's. Harwood constructs an image for the readers, that the mother in the sonnet has relinquished all her dreams and aspirations in order to become the mother figure for her children.
This image is depicted all throughout the poem. Harwood’s comparison of a fugue and the mother’s life is both accurate and powerful, as she implies that the behavior of the mother in and out of the kitchen represent the complex composition of a fugue. 'She practices a fugue, though it can matter to no one, now if she plays well of not'. The use of emotion and mood in this phrase captivates the readers into associating her life as dull and disappointing, one that none should experience! The quote “though it can matter to no one now if she plays well or not” has a strong depressing vibe to it. Pointing out that no one would care about her talent on the piano, instantly causes the reader to want to care and to do something for the mother. This was Harwood’s aim, to effectively utilize the emotions and common sense of humans so they could gain a sympathetic tone towards what the mother was battling. The utilization of rhyming couplets and sporadic short sentences like “her veins ache” form a chaotic and disorganized structure and rhythm to the sonnet, which is an example of a metaphor to the mother’s struggling life. This short, but powerful quote brings the mother and the audience back to the harsh reality of the painful world, when there is no time for her to even investigate her activities of interest.
Harwood also applies emotive language and olfactory imagery to provide the reader an opportunity to reflect and experience what the mother was feeling. 'A pot boils over. As she rushes to the stove too late, a wave of nausea overpowers' Harwood paints an illustration for the readers that depicts a pot of milk bubbling over and the horrendous stench circulating around the kitchen. Harwood’s application of olfactory imagery provides the audience time to relate the smell in the poem to the commonly recognized stench of sour milk, which therefore puts the reader into an uncomfortable position of feeling sorry for the miserable mother. Another example is featured in line 3 “[the] children chatter, then scream and fight” this imagery emphasizes the consequence and realities of bearing children in the 1960’s. This phrase is then further uplifted as a result of the use of juxtaposing where the life of being a mother is severely contrasted to the unlikely life of a musician. This quote again forces the readers into feeling sorry for the mother as it provides a clear image of children “scream[ing] and fight[ing]” which for most, does not bring pleasant memories. Harwood’s juxtaposed phrase was to make the reader realize that her life could’ve looked much different, if her identify was not to be crushed by the life she lives.
Harwood also integrates repetition all through ‘Suburban Sonnet’ Phrases like “she hushes them” (line 4) “she rushes to the stove” (line 5) and “she scours the crusted milk” form an image in the reader of feverish, frantic movement throughout the house which consequently reveals the realities and obligations of a mother’s bleak lifestyle in the 1960’s.
Harwood’s excellent reference to a typical musical composition does an outstanding job in conveying the mother’s identity. We can see in line 1, the mother’s dream is to become a pianist hence the phrase “she practices a fugue” however, read on and it says this “though it can matter to no one if she plays well or not” this suggest that there is a loss of identity and creativity because of the domestic roles and societal expectations that were being put on women in the 1960’s. Furthermore, Harwood’s use of symbolism in line 11 and 12 further expand on the mother’s identity and purpose. The mouse symbolizes the mother, her dreams and her ambitions. The dream of becoming a musician is so far from reality that her identity and worth has now been drowned by the mousetrap who represent society and her children. The mother now ‘lies dead’ in a ‘sprung mousetrap’ who feels lost, weary and confused. Harwood has used this analogy in order to assert a major concern, the mother has practically become the family’s slave. She has lost all sense of identity and she no longer can fathom a career as a professional pianist. This is extremely powerful as a person’s integrity and identity is what makes them human, so for the mother to have it all taken away provides the reader a mentality of guilt and anguish for the mother.
Overall, this poem is both powerful and accurate as it forced us to look at the issue at a broader scale and it confronted us with the problems women faced in the 1960’s. Techniques like mood, rhythm, juxtaposing, symbolism, repetition, emotive language and olfactory imagery were all used by Harwood in an effective manner that saw her powerful message shine all throughout the poem.
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