Gwen Harwood Essay

Through out time beings have developed and demonstrated the need for their values and morals as guidance to higher understanding of deaths chosen path for each individual. Death as a whole is inevitable, and growing to accept these changes is a learning curve of life. Though death is an inevitable force, the memories we keep dear are what give fulfillment and richness to life, and develop our acceptance.
The development of understanding deaths plan can come at a price. The loss of innocence shown in ‘Father and Child: I Barn Owl’ begins the personas realization and acceptance of death. Harwood demonstrates contrast in the personas views of its self as “a master of life and death” in the first stanza, with “a lonely child” in the forth stanza. This use of contrast shows the acceptance of demise as a force uncontrollable by beings. The change of perspective of death in the persona is carried through in “II Nightfall”; the use of enjambment in “Let us walk for this hour if death had no power/or were no more than sleep” shows the yearning for a control of deaths path, paired with the shift in awareness.
As we come to terms with our fears of death, it is often the case we are accepting these forces due to our life experiences. . This is clear in Harwood’s “At Mornington”, as the persona is recollecting her earliest memories, content with her past. Indentation in the fourth stanza implies a dream or a recollection of a memory, in this memory there is visual imagery of the “day-bright flowers”, this shows the beauty of a moment and the impact of a memory long after that moment in time. . Throughout “II Nightfall” we are shown the persona’s recognition of the fathers influence on their growth through memories and experiences, “since there is no more to taste/ripeness is plainly all”, this use of sensory imagery expresses there will be no more experiences for them to share, only to recollect and enjoy the memories they have once shared together. Harwood’s “The Violets”...