This Summary Sheet for At Mornington by Gwen Harwood provides a base for your own notes.

Title: At Mornington
Subject
Matter:
This piece is a philosophical and academic reflection on the nature of being, life and death.
Analysis: Key Quotes Techniques and Impact on Reader
Rolled/like a doll among rattling
shells
Loss of power, overcome by the superiority of nature.
Onomatopoeia creates auditory imagery synecdoche
of the sea.
As a child I could walk on
water-/ the next wave, the next
wave-
Superhuman capabilities of innocence, biblical
allusion. Repetition highlight the naivety of belief,
aposiopesis to show the interrupted and ultimately
futile nature of this enterprise.
On what flood are they
borne/these memories of early
childhood/iridescent, fugitive
Continues motif of water, juxtaposition of splendour
and hidden, secretive nature of memories.
With their cadence of
trees/marble and granite
parting/the quick of autumn
grasses
The break in the natural world by something unnatural
is shown as bad through the link to death. Life and
death as one long continuum (cadence). The grasses
refers to the time in life which the persona is
experiencing, where she can see what has been and
what is yet to come and reflect upon the two.
in airy defiance of nature/a
parable of myself
Refers to opening in which she though she could cheat
nature.
And stayed for a whole
day/talking, and drinking the
water
The indentation refers to the fact that this is a dream
and thus not necessarily part of real life, yet the
replenishing power of water (a metaphor for the
memories of childhood?) remains.
we have one day, only one/but
more than enough to refresh us
Inclusive pronouns indicates a strong bond and the
repetition of one highlights the importance of this to
the persona. The transience of time is shown through
the only.
the peace of this day will
shine/like light on the face of the
The future tense shows the cleansing nature of death,
in that it returns one to a state of innocence (see:
waters/that bear me away for
ever.
Father and Child). The Romantic power of water is not
diminished even here as it is linked to such a return.
The acceptance of death is show through the tense
shift from past to future to present through the piece
and in this final stanza.
Themes:
Harwoods
message:
philosophy,
moral, premise,
motif,
argument or
insight
What does
Harwood teach
us?
The role of middle age as a place for reflection and contemplation of both the childhood that
was and the death that is to come. The transience of life (as with the pitcher of water) and
the importance of embracing nature (fine pumpkins growing on a trellis) in order to accept
the waters that bear me away for ever.
Distinctive
Qualities /
Textual
Integrity of
Poem:
What aspect/s
leave a lasting
impression on
the responder?
What is the
most notable
aspect of this
poem?
How is this
poem reflective
of Harwoods
poetry in
general?
There is no rhyme scheme in this piece, which shows the train-of-thought nature of the piece
as a reflective journey for the persona. The use of an indented dream passage keeps the
reader aware of the constructed nature of the piece and the fallibility of the persona, which
is distinctly postmodern, despite the Romantic tone which pervades this, as all Harwoods
writing. The motif of the water is indicative of this, as well as the symbol of the pumpkins
as rejuvenated
Critics
Commentary:
What have
others said
about this
poem: style
and content?

Her poetry repeatedly asserts the value of friendship and durable human relationships as
defences against the destructive nature of time (Huddinott and Kratzmann, 2003)

This Summary Sheet for The Violets by Gwen Harwood provides a base for your own notes.
Title: The Violets
Subject Matter: The subject is a past childhood memory linked to a present adult reflection through the
motif of a violet. The poem is set in Harwoods childhood home, and as a result it is
most likely predominantly autobiographical.
Analysis: Key Quotes Techniques and Impact on Reader
Frail melancholy flowers
among/Ashes and loam.
Transience of childhood, innocence and life. Ash as
a symbol of death and fragility, loam as a
juxtaposing symbol of life and growth.
Ambiguous light. Ambiguous
sky/towards nightfall waking
Transience, movement between adulthood (present)
and childhood (past). Epistrophe to highlight this.
Enjambment of stanza to show the movement
between the two.
Wheres morning gone? Rhetorical question, direct speech, questioning the
passage of time.
the thing I could not grasp or
name
Monosyllabic to show the simplicity of childhood
and thus ignorance, also the inpermeability of life.
Years cannot move/nor
deaths disorientating
scale/distort those lamplit
presences
The powers of memory in salvation from the
transience are our memories all that truly matter?
Use of light as a motif for growth and
enlightenment.
Themes:Harwoods
message:
philosophy, moral,
premise, motif,
argument or
insightWhat does
Harwood teach us?
Existential questioning of life, childhood and memory. It shows the passage from
innocence to enlightenment through the sensory imagery of the violets and the motif of
light to show enlightenment and growth of the persona. The importance of memories is
highlighted in the poem due to their retained power of rejuvenation and reflection.
Distinctive
Qualities / Textual
Integrity of
Poem:What
aspect/s leave a
lasting impression
on the
responder?What is
the most notable
aspect of this
poem?How is this
poem reflective of
Harwoods poetry
in general?
The poem uses frequent enjambment in order to continue the train-of-thought style of
the piece, which waxes lyrical in a slow pace, showing the growth and movement of the
personas journey through the indentation. This enjambment also allows Harwoods
existential questioning to work as the whole piece flows without interruption, allowing
the reader to follow this and thus transfer the philosophical questioning to their own
lives. Fleeting moments of rhyme interrupt this in order to jolt the reader from one
state to another, intentionally grating in contrast to the smoothness of the rest of the
piece.A key feature of Harwoods poetry is her focus on the philosophical and
rejuvenating powers of nature in a Romantic style. As a post-modern author, this makes
her work unique and adds to its textual integrity.
Critics
Commentary:What
have others said
about this poem:
style and content?
The enemy is, of course, time, Violets link past and present (Hoddinott, 1991)
The Violets
- The poem represents the passing of time and a memory of childhood
- The violets are flowers with a fleeting beauty and just like youth, childhood and time they fade. Dualism of death and
the beautiful
- Violets represent both change and permanence, they remain the soma but somehow they have been changed
- Conversational/dreamlike tone created by enjambment and irregular pattern of the lines
- Concerned with the movement of time/time in fleeting, change
- It speaks of stolen time and past events
- Tries to make tangible something that is intangible through the metaphor of music
- A memory of family, things she remembers the most about her parents
- Uses nature to understand the past
- God was seen as an integral part of the natural world
- Time passes death approaches
- Dualism, past / present passing of time
- The infinity of life, its passing, is explained by the infinity of death
- Even though black birds and curlews are harbingers of death and the beauty of the violets fade, nature is idealised
- The dynamics of The Violets are marked by indenting the stanzas. The present in stanza 1 is at the margin, stanza 3 to
4 move back into the past and are indented, the final stanza , a mixture of present and past, is staggered
- There is a bleak imagery in stanza 1 and a growing warmth in the past, It is dusk and coldfrail melancholy
flowersour blackbird frets and strops
- Innocence and simplicity of youth. The simplistic beauty of black and white understanding
- Recaptures memory of her parents
- Prevailing image throughout poem is fecundity (fertility and growth)

In the violets psychoanalytical criticism can be applied, for it is a poem about personal reflection through the
subconscious mind. This dreamlike quality is created through the rhythm of one line flowing into the next. The persona
relives memories, of her childhood experiences, which are triggered by the scent of violets. Gwen Harwood uses violets
as the main symbol, for like childhood and time, they are flowers which only posses a fleeting beauty and in time, they,
like our lives, will reach their end. The violets are also a symbol of nature which is very common theme among
romanticists. The mood of the poem is portrayed in the first stanza, I kneel to pick frail melancholy flowers among
ashes and loam, these words create and atmosphere of thoughtfulness for she is reflecting on the past. Harwood uses
music as a means to transcend time by whistling a trill. Throughout the poem Harwood uses taste, referred to by ice
cream and touch referred to by loam, ashes, stroking and hair to enhance the adult personas experience of the
memories as well as the readers. To show when the adult persona is drifting into memory Hardwood uses repetition,
Ambiguous light. Ambiguous sky. The poem also contains a contrast between light and dark; for the child wakes up to
the setting of the sun and is upset that time has been stolen from her. Psychoanalytical theory can be used for the
childs feelings of loss due to, the thing I could not grasp or name that, while I slept, had stolen from me those hours of
unreturning light. It can also be suggested by the hours of unreturning light that the adult persona has not yet fully
come to terms with death. However the memories of stolen time help her to overcome her fears. The poem also
contains memories of a carefree time with her parents and the innocence of a child. This aspect is enhanced through the
use of metaphors, imagery and the symbolism created by nature. Years cannot move nor deaths disorienting scale
distort those lamplit presences, this shows that through the memories the adult persona has come to terms with aging
and the inevitability of death. For she now realises that even death cannot erase her memories. A spiritual aspect is
created through the lamplit presences which could symbolize the waiting of death. In the last line Harwood once again
uses the symbol of violets to bind the poem together and make the emotions more tangible, Faint scent of violet drifts
through the air.

The Violets
In this poem of reminiscence of her childhood, Harwood concentrates on violets, both as frail
melancholy flowers and as symbolic of our fragile early memories, which we cherish and love to
recall:
Faint scent of violets drifts in the air
This positive teaching of the poem, however, is delayed by the negative anecdote which opens it.
This is in the adult present and the setting, at dusk, is cold. Once again, Harwood introduces her
theme of the dissatisfaction of adult life, which is to be developed here in comparison with a
celebration of childhood. Yet in the midst of her despair in the present, she finds the violets,
struggling to emerge and survive: signs of new life and beauty rising from the ashes. To try to
establish a connection with nature in order to revive her spirit, she whistles a bird-like trill but,
Our blackbird frets and strops his beak indifferent to Scarlattis song.
As before, Harwood is regretting the dissociation of humanity and natures creatures, and (like Keats)
even sets her beloved music at a disadvantage in comparison with the unpremeditated art of
birdsong.
So the setting is at best ambiguous with elements both of hope (the presence of the violets for
example) and of despair.
The violets have set her memory in motion and she recalls a similar late afternoon in her early
childhood. Confused by an afternoon nap, she had woken up looking for breakfast. Sobbing, when
she realised her mistake, she asked Wheres morning gone? The childs plaintive question
addressed to her mother, is also the poets disturbing address to the reader: our childhood and its
innocence and beauty will quickly pass, like a morning gone. Yet, we may retain its lovely moments
in our adult memory.
To comfort her daughter, her mother:
carried me downstairs to see
spring violets in the loamy bed.
That her father arrives with a whistle (onomatopoeia giving his arrival an aural immediacy) connects
the experience with her adult whistling of t he first stanza. On one of its levels, this poem is a
celebration of her love for and indebtedness to her parents and the family life they created, the
examples of behaviour which she has perpetuated. Nonetheless, although surrounded by this care
and affection, she bitterly laments the lost morning that cannot be recovered. However, the teaching
of the poem soon to be disclosed is that domain of purity and hope is always recoverable, by the
imagination and the memory.
Nothing that her subsequent life has know, not even death itself of her parents, for example can
distort those lamplit presences! They have an eternal quality. And Harwoods language and imagery
is of a religious and spiritual kind in these closing lines, as she refers (for example) to entering my
fathers house (a biblical phrase), to the lamp and develops the symbolism of light to its beautiful
climax in the sheen of her mothers goldbrown hair. Kedron Brook flowed near Harwoods childhood
home in the outer suburbs of Brisbane.
The violets in the present have served the purpose of stirring these memories from the past and, in
their fragility and beauty, the flowers are emblems of those memories.

The violets is also a social document and commentary, revealing a kind of family life antique by
todays standards. The lamplight and the wood stove, the child with milk and story book, the
parents with time for their child and for each other, the mother at home to attend to her childs
needs and the appreciation of the beauty of nature close at hand.

My father, bending to inhale
the gathered flowers, with tenderness
stroking my mothers goldbrown hair
Could be dismissed as an idealistic romantisation of the past. Or, it could simply be an insight into a
better world.
At Mornington
- Nature is presented as a cleansing process, a way to find truth and wisdom
- Repetition of waves and water is very important, symbolizing time and the flow of memories. They link past and
present. Waves are always continuous and coming in life. Waves, tides, floods, water.
- Comfortable with the approaching of death.
- Information from another, they told me that when I was taken, passive voice
- Breaking from constraint of father and almost drowns
- rolled, in the first and last stanza: I was caught by a wave and rolled
and rolled in one grinding race.
- Passive voice, loss of control, vulnerable. However in contrast the second use of rolled is more excepted she has come
to terms with life and the inevitable- age death
- First young and innocent
- Second age and knowledge
- Pumpkin symbolizes fecundity, fertility/growth, maturity
- Two images of the pumpkin. One is hollowed (mocking?). the other is more real and humble. Perhaps a celebration to
be part of life.
- I would walk on water, invincible, sums up this sense of being indestructible- contrasts to the poem as she has
excepted death by the end
- innocence and experience
- the next wave, the next wave, repetition, overwhelming. Like the flood of memories and the experiences of life.
- Flood, memories, fleeting
- beauty-autumn, metaphor- reminder of death
- Fine pumpkin grown on a trellis, almost defying nature as the child did
- Hollowed pumpkin- death. The child looks at death. A child mocking it, not understanding it
- connection, ripeness is plainly all from father and child part two
- Enjambment creates conversation/plausibility, childhood-graveyard-dream
- The water of life time
- She thinks of death no more because she has come to realise that she is not inevitable and death will come regardless
of her thoughts or worries. Knowledge and experience. Death is just another wave to balance out
- Significance of past memories. She has captivated a pivotal moment in her life
- Child believes that it can defy nature by walking on water. Determination.
- Can certainly be read through religion
- Both personal interpretation, romantic and societies interpretation, modern
- Encapsulates the human experience, pain, dreams, desire etc.

At Mornington
This poem was inspired by a visit to a very dear friend, Thomas Riddell. The poet went to his garden
first, then to the Mornington Cemetary where his parents are buried.

The poem begins with the childhood memory in which the poet recalls her first visit to the sea as a
child. Believing she could walk on water, she jumped in and had to be rescued by her father. After
saving her he was half comforting, half angry.
Just as she thought she could defy gravity and walk on water, so the pumpkins in her friends garden
in airy defiance of nature symbolised for her the way in which she has been nourished by the fruits
of the Earth and is moving through life to the fastness of light and the ultimate death.

She is reminded of death as two friends of middle age. She and Thomas Riddell, stand by his
parents grave among avenues of the dead. She is aware that these have come to that time of life
when their bones begin to age and form their body into the final shape it will assume in death just as
the drying face of land rose out of earths seamless waters.

The poet recalls the peace and serenity she enjoyed with her long-time friend in a dream set in the
Brisbane Botanical Gardens where they share a pitcher of cool, refreshing water. So their visit to the
cemetery, the security she experienced in her fathers arms (when confronted for the first time by a
Halloween pumpkin) and the serenity shared in the Botanic Gardens all these will comfort and
shield her at the time of her death, when she is seized at last and borne away on the face of the
waters forever.