I was recently asked by my younger son Chris to read with him some Australian poetry. Chris wrote a critique for two of the poems for his Year 12 English studies. Chris and I found Critically Acclaimed Gwen Harwood’s words and her life fascinating so I wanted to share her story. Gwen Harwood also grew up in our neighbourhood in Brisbane’s western suburbs. Below is part of Chris’s critique.

Gwen Harwood was born in 1942 and grew up in Taringa, in Western Suburbs Brisbane. She went to Brisbane Girls Grammar School and All Saint High. Harwood had studied music and completed a Diploma to teach music but found herself in a typist job at the War Damage Commission. Although early in her life she had developed an interest in literature, philosophy and music, she was limited to what the society enabled her to do in her career. She would later be described in our time as brilliant but was understated.
Harwood’s father taught her music and her grandmother introduced her to poetry. For years, Harwood could not publish her work under her own name because she was a woman. The society, male editors mostly, thought a woman should not be a writer or get published. As a woman poet in a largely male dominated place, Harwood used Pseudonyms to be allowed or belong to the publishing world. A local Brisbane publisher, Minjiin first published her poem in 1944. From 1960s, Harwood started to publish more of her writings in journals and books. Her discreet life in the literary world reflected the place expected of a woman during that time (from 1940s). Poems such as the Suburban Sonnet reflected Harwood’s strong views about how the society’s view of women was.
Generally in a sonnet, the poem is about a beautiful woman in love. In this case, Harwood depicts a woman in a chaotic household in contrast to the traditional rule of a sonnet.
Drawing from her own experiences, she wrote poems that question the status of women and the right to be whatever a woman aspired to be. She portrayed the suburbia woman to boring and ordinary. In the Suburban Sonnet, Harwood showed the restricted society she and other women belonged to by challenging the norm of the social and cultural ideologies on suburban women, especially mothers.
The dead mouse could be interpreted as her dream of teaching music being dead. In her society, a woman’s artistic ambitions may as well be dead, because her society expected her to do things in certain ways. “The Stale bread” could refer to a woman’s domestic life, which she saw as boring. Harwood was accepted as belonging to the male dominated publishing world only after she made a startling publication. 1961, The Bulletin accepted a sonnet from Walter Lehmann, and after it was published it was brought to the editor Donald Horne that the initial of each line formed the phrase “Fuck All Editors”.
The Suburban Sonnet : Boxing Day (Gwen Harwood)
She practices fugue, though it can matter
to no one now if she plays well or not.
Beside her on the floor two children chatter,
then scream and fight. She hushes them. A pot
boils over. As she rushes to the stove
too late, a wave of nausea overpowers subject and counter subject
drain out with soapy water as she scours
the crusted milk. Her veins ache.
Once she played for Rubinstein, who yawned. The children caper round a sprung mousetrap where a mouse lies dead.
When the soft corpse won’t move they seem afraid.
She comforts them; and wraps it in a paper
featuring: Tasty dishes from stale bread.
What a shocking and bold action “the initial of each line formed the phrase “Fuck All Editors””. But I understand a woman who was under pressure to disguise as a man.
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Thank you hiMe. I admire her for what she did, not only for herself but all women writers at that time.
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Reblogged this on Ripple Poetry and commented:
Gwen Harwood is a cleaver and profound poet. Over at Tribalmystic, read this post on her work.
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Ca I reblog this one on my ripple poetry site Joycelin.
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Of course! You are very welcome and thank you!
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Thanks 😉
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I heard her lecture once in Tasmania when I was doing my ungraduate degree. Wish I could remember more about that day. We studied her in year 12 and she was well known in Tasmania where she went to live. Interestingly I lived in Taringa last year and kept thinking about that as where Gwen Harwood once lived.
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Lovely! Oh you are privileged, having heard her speak. I wish…
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I wish I could remember it more clearly..
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Chris’ critique of Gwen Harwood’s life is very thorough and very well done. Another writer in the family?
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Hahaha Thank you Millie. Chris would rather build and make things, but I told him he cannot do his engineering degree without reading and writing so he took English as one of his majors this year. 🙂
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Well, he’s very good at it. But I know how clever Chris is at making things from some of your other posts. He’s obviously a good all-rounder. 🙂
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😉 Mmmm, yes, I may ask for dowry for this one..
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You have smart and lovely sons. I too must explore more of Gwen Harwood’s work. Thanks for the introduction. 🙂
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Thank you very much. I think you will like Gwen’s work. She is a very interesting woman.
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I do already from your post and I agree.
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I need to explore more of Gwen Harwood’s writing. I’ve no idea what age Year 12 is but your son is a good writer!
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Thank you very much Gwen. Chris is 16. He is reading and writing more and I am happy. He did not like enjoy doing that before, not as much as his older brother Nathan.
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That’s good to hear. I do believe that enjoying reading and writing is one of the keys to a happy and satisfying life.
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True! 🙂 Thank you again for reading.
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