Gwen Harwood: Role of women

[crystallisation]

Hi,
So I have to write a 500 paragraph on the role of women in the poems 'In The Park' and 'Suburban Sonnet' this is what  I have so far I don't think it's right but here it is

Harwood focuses on the role women have in families,  both poems express her feelings of motherhood in a negative aspect. In the Park and Suburban Sonnet depicts her mundane lifestyle and the restrictive routine she lives by, sacrificing her dreams and passion for her children. She conveys motherhood as exhausting the 'Zest and love drain out', her life becomes monotonous and causes even the smallest things to become prominent such as 'her veins ach(ing)'. These descriptions of her life show readers married women are forced to live a dull life, doing chores and tending to their children needs. In the Suburban Sonnet Harwood's depiction of a 'mousetrap where a mouse lies dead' symbolizes her life,  trapped by motherhood leaving her dreams to die. Similarly in the poem In the Park she describes her children 'have eaten (her) alive' these negative (connotations???) show how her children and lifestyle has consumed her, draining all the excitement and passion she once had.

I don't know what else I should add, I think this is pretty bad I'm not sure if I'm really addressing the role of women properly... Please help

[meganrobyn]

Hi,
So I have to write a 500 paragraph on the role of women in the poems 'In The Park' and 'Suburban Sonnet' this is what  I have so far I don't think it's right but here it is

Harwood focuses on the role women have in families,  both poems express her feelings of motherhood in a negative aspect. In the Park and Suburban Sonnet depicts her mundane lifestyle and the restrictive routine she lives by, sacrificing her dreams and passion for her children. She conveys motherhood as exhausting the 'Zest and love drain out', her life becomes monotonous and causes even the smallest things to become prominent such as 'her veins ach(ing)'. These descriptions of her life show readers married women are forced to live a dull life, doing chores and tending to their children needs. In the Suburban Sonnet Harwood's depiction of a 'mousetrap where a mouse lies dead' symbolizes her life,  trapped by motherhood leaving her dreams to die. Similarly in the poem In the Park she describes her children 'have eaten (her) alive' these negative (connotations???) show how her children and lifestyle has consumed her, draining all the excitement and passion she once had.

I don't know what else I should add, I think this is pretty bad I'm not sure if I'm really addressing the role of women properly... Please help

I don't think it's so much that your conclusions are faulty or that you're missing the 'proper' role - I think it's more that you're very general. It's expressed as one general idea (ie it's bad) and there's not really a lot of depth or nuance to the analysis or interpretation of the text insofar as it informs or communicates those interpretive conclusions.

So, I guess what I'd say is that you have a fine starting-point. Maybe try a dot-point list of what different things precisely are negative, and why they're negative. Try to get negative in a few distinct ways. Then try to link aspects of the poems to those more specific ideas, and really ask yourself how and why those poetic choices (words, rhythm, images, structure, etc) have been used to communicate those ideas. For example, what is a sonnet? Why is it a "suburban" one? What does that mean? Is it ironic? Is it bitter? Is it romantic? Is it sincere? Why? Etc.