The woman still feels love and affection for this man, and can read his thoughts about her disposition. They chat about the children, names and birthdays, and she pretends she is happy. When her ex-lover leaves she feels disappointment that she is not with him. Staring at her feet, she realizes she has been put into a life with abundant responsibilities of motherhood and marriage. She can only relate her unhappiness to the wind. This way of life has drained her of freedom and a romantic happiness, which she feels she could have had with her ex-lover.
2. Basic Elements: The speaker in this sonnet is an unhappily married woman, who feels trapped by society to become responsible for raising children, and taking care of her husband. Harwood believes in expressing the situation that women are put into, once they get married and have children. The sonnet is a Petrarchan sonnet, with a 4-4– 6 form, having the abba, abba, cdecde rhyme scheme. Harwood tries to keep to the 10 syllables for a line. This sonnet creates a situation in the first eight lines, and uses the last six lines to illustrate the disposition that this mother has with her life.
3. Emotional Elements: The reader can find added meaning in “but for the grace of God” (8), which really refers to her ex-lover thinking that he is happy not to be in the situation of having three children to raise. Also, the meaning coming from “They have eaten me alive”(14), sums up the emotion of this sonnet; having to be responsible for the raising of her three children, has added a toll on her once young charming life, and her beautiful body. There is no sound in this sonnet, and there is little influence and excitement coming from the rhyme and meter.
4. Rational Elements: Harwood makes use of imagery to project the woman in her sonnet. “Her clothes are out of date” (1), gives the reader an image that this woman is not wearing the latest fashion, and not able to financially obtain the wardrobe that she once had. Another sign of imagery is “From his neat head unquestionably rises a small balloon” (7-8), which Harwood uses to relate this to the woman being able to read the thoughts of her ex-lover.
5. Reader Reaction: Knowing that Gwen Harwood was one of Australia’s finest poets, helps adjust to the theme that she is striving on, one of the hardship of a woman who becomes a mother and wife in Australia. Australia was a rough country, and did not have as much glamour as the United States did. It was harder to raise a family in Australia than in the United States 50 years ago. Harwood is trying to get the message across, that housewives do not have it easy, and sacrifice more than men do in raising children and keeping house. It would be much easier to be a man and a husband, who shares the responsibilities but not the domestic work. “They have eaten me alive” (14), is the ending of this sonnet, words that are almost self-explanatory.
6. Evaluate: Harwood’s sonnet does follows the sonnet rule, and she is trying to closely have ties to the Petrarchan sonnet. However, instead of having one eight line stanza followed by a six line stanza, she has two four line stanzas followed by the six line stanza. This form is unique and is odd, as she breaks up a sentence in the fourth line of the first stanza, carrying the sentence over to the first line in the second stanza. Hawood does use rhyme adhering to the Petrarchan rule, which I have mentioned above my basic element answer. The poet also has deviated from the 10 syllable rule, and used 12 syllables in the first and last lines of the third stanza.
7. Thinking Like a Poet: In a sonnet I expect there will be 14 lines, and a rhyme that can follow one of the sonnet schemes. A sonnet will be able to relate to nature, human life, or human emotions. A love theme is often what I would expect to find in a sonnet. Compared to a haiku, a sonnet is a masterpiece in expression. The haiku, with its 3 lines is sending a picture and message, that a sonnet can expand on, and beautifies with rhyme and meter in 14 lines. The sonnet is more emotional than the haiku, and has more methods that can be used to elaborate words that flow into a beautiful love poem for the reader.