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The poetry of Gwen Harwood #1

No Comments »8th December, 2008; Category: Poetry, Writers

Poem: In the Park by Australian poet Gwen Harwood

            This poem relates a small incident in the life of a woman with three young children. She is sitting in the park and obviously feeling very stressed out looking after her little family. We can assume that money is not plentiful (‘Her clothes are out of date’).  A passer-by stops to talk. He is ‘someone she loved once’ but we are not certain that this is the father of the children. It could be someone who could have easily found himself in a similar situation but didn’t ‘but for the grace of God.’

            The young mother tries to put on a brave face by saying the ‘it’s so sweet to hear their chatter, watch them grow and thrive.’ But the last line totally debunks that idea: ‘To the wind she says, “They have eaten me alive.”’ All ambitions have been thwarted – dashed to nothing by the demands of her family.

            Technically, this is a sonnet with most lines written in iambic pentameter. It has a regular rhyming pattern (abba cddc efgefg).

Reference:

  • Harwood, Gwen, 2001, Selected Poems. Penguin, Camberwell.

What I am reading: the poetry of Gwen Harwood

No Comments »7th December, 2008; Category: Master of Arts course, Poetry, Writers

The Poetry of Australian poet Gwen Harwood

In one of the units of my Master of Arts in Creative writing course, I had to read and study the poetry of Australian poet Gwen Harwood. I did a little research on the background and life of Gwen Harwood before reading much of her poetry. Although I had heard of her I had read very little of her work before this last week. I had occasionally dipped into a volume of her poetry I found on my daughter’s bookshelf.

Gwendoline Nessie Foster was born on 8th June 1920 in Queensland into a family whose interests included language, religion, philosophy and music. As she grew she aspired to be a musician because her family had a strong interest in this area. Later she was an accomplished organist and a music teacher. In 1945 she married the linguist William Harwood and moved with him to live in Tasmania where she lived until her death in 1995.

Death is a recurring theme in her work, though it never seemed to cause her distress, even when diagnosed with cancer ten years before her passing. Harwood drew great inspiration from her music and referred to many musical terms in her poems. She invented the character of Professor Krote, ‘a talented European pianist who finds himself in a shallow, stuffy, conservative Australian town where he is forced to earn a living by giving music lessons to indifferent pupils.

Many of her poems written later in life explore the memories and experiences of her childhood in Queensland. These poems cover some distressing moments and an awareness of the innocence of childhood and how her attitude to those events changed as she grew older. If one could summarize her poetry, you would have to conclude that she has consistently poured her own emotions quite freely into many of her poems. She has drawn widely from her personal experiences and people she knew. Gwen Harwood received many awards and several honorary doctorates in recognition of her writing.

She has published her poetry under at least four other names.

Reference:

  • Harwood, Gwen, 2001, Selected Poems. Penguin, Camberwell.

Oxymorons

1 Comment »4th December, 2008; Category: Quotes

I love discovering oxymorons in printed text. I think they are delightful and add something unique to our language.

A few days ago our state daily newspaper published a classic. I just had to share it with you:

“Thank God I’m an atheist.”

For those who have never come across the term, an oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines two contradictory concepts. Some of my favourite include

  • hasten slowly
  • deafening silence
  • school discipline
  • military intelligence
  • council worker
  • accidentally on purpose
  • organised chaos
  • an open secret
  • pretty ugly

The word oxymoron comes from the Greek oxy meaning sharp or pointed, and moros meaning dull or stupid. In an interesting twist, the word oxymoron is itself and oxymoron. How neat.

For a really interesting explanation, this You Tube video is a classic. Try to ignore the slightly raunchy presentation:

Setting goals for your writing

2 Comments »30th November, 2008; Category: Goal setting, The Writer's Life

I receive email newsletters from a number of excellent writing centres, groups and web sites. These vary in quality from week to week or month to month. Most, however, contain something I can easily apply to my writing to improve it.

This week I received a very passionate email from a writer here in Australia. It was all about setting goals in order to give your writing direction and impetus. Strange that I should read this article immediately after setting a few writing goals for myself.

I know it’s not New Year yet, but there was a special need for me to revise my writing goals. Two days ago I finished attending my Writing Course for the year. I now have a break from lectures until next February. It was time to review what I’d achieved this year and to determine where I am heading over the next few weeks, months and years. In fact, I take a long term view with my writing, especially my blogging. I realised early on that steady income from writing, and blogging in particular, takes time to develop.

Consequently, I have reset some goals, extending over the next five years.

I also break this down into yearly, monthly, weekly and daily goals. To help me I keep fairly accurate records of what I actually achieve. This keeps me honest and accountable to myself. I no longer beat myself up if I get behind a little, but it sure motivates me to keep going.

Over this next few weeks, do a review of your writing (or blogging) achievements for this year. Then jot down a few goals for next year, and for the next five years. Then get back to the writing so you can achieve those goals.

Good writing.

Related articles:

Doing the writer’s jig – over and over

No Comments »29th November, 2008; Category: Master of Arts course, The Writer's Life

Excuse me while I do a BIG writer’s jig around and around and around the room.

I’d better sit down. I’m feeling dizzy.

I’m doing the writer’s jig because I’ve had a huge writing success this week. On Thursday we had a book launch at University where I am doing my Master of Arts in Creative Writing course. Every year they ask for submissions of stories and poems. On a number of occasions during the course of the year, lecturers went out of their way to ask me to submit certain pieces I had written. This might sound like publication was automatic; it wasn’t. As the course has really blossomed in numbers this year the competition was fierce.

Most who submitted their work would have been pleased with two or three pieces being published. I was gobsmacked; they published eleven pieces of my work. This included one short story, one poem and nine other poems in the form of sonnets.  I’d never written a sonnet in my life until a few weeks ago.

Then there was a further honour during the launch, I was one of only four (out of many dozens) to be asked to read out some of my writing.

I think I might jig around the room one more time.

Good writing.

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