In the Park by the Australian poet Gwen Harwood dwells primarily around the alternate and realistic views on motherhood and the conjugal life of a woman. In this poem, the speaker observes a woman in a park and draws conclusions about her life which is most probably different from what she had imagined it to be. A woman’s individuality and thus identity gets lost in the overpowering strictures of patriarchal duties, leaving her unsatisfied and frustrated. The vehicle of responsibility cannot move depending on only a single set of tires. Similarly, raising a child should be a joint effort of the parents and a woman should not be left alone in the process.
In The Park | Summary and Analysis
The poem in the sonnet form narrates an observation of a woman sitting in a park with her children playing around her by a third-person speaker. Divided into three stanzas- two quatrains and a six-line stanza, the rhyme scheme works on the pattern abba cddc efgefg. The dejected state of motherhood comes to the fore contrasting the conventional worldview of love and nurturance associated with it.
In The Park | Analysis, Lines 1-4
She sits in the park. Her clothes are out of date.
Two children whine and bicker, tug her skirt.
A third draws aimless patterns in the dirt
Someone she loved once passed by – too late
The poem opens with a nameless woman the speaker observes sitting in a park, wearing outdated clothes that suggests her passing age. An objectified look on the part of the speaker is noticeable as the poem progresses. The punctuation in the first line gives an impression of the ordinariness of the woman and the kind of life she’s living. Her kids are engaged in childish plays, troubling her momentarily. Like a silent spectator, the woman looks at her children engrossed in their own world while she sits there idly, without a purpose. Her existence somehow now revolves around her offspring. Contextually, Harwood too had four children and she adjusted her lifestyle according to them and her husband’s needs. She too had made sacrifices for her family. The tone of the poem suddenly changes when a man passes the woman who “she loved once.” Past knocks on her door in an unruly fashion, leaving her out of time to prepare for the encounter as the Caesura in the last line reflects.
In The Park | Analysis, Lines 5-8
to feign indifference to that casual nod.
“How nice” et cetera. “Time holds great surprises.”
From his neat head unquestionably rises
a small balloon…”but for the grace of God…”
The enjambment mirrors the multitude of overflowing thoughts the woman experiences as she compulsively admits the man’s presence instead of the usual indifference. A formal conversation enters between them which is a facade for their inner thoughts. The woman humorously perceives the man to be expressing his gratitude to God for saving him from the fate now the woman bears i.e. looking after children and losing her own personality and identity. Harwood satirically exposes the societal conventions of greeting and engaging in worldly conversations to escape the bitter truths of life. People adopt a pleasing and comforting attitude towards each other in an attempt to avoid harsh realities.
In The Park | Analysis, Lines 9-14
They stand a while in flickering light, rehearsing
the children’s names and birthdays. “It’s so sweet
to hear their chatter, watch them grow and thrive, ”
she says to his departing smile. Then, nursing
the youngest child, sits staring at her feet.
To the wind she says, “They have eaten me alive.”
The imagery of “flickering light” can be assumed signalling the evening hours of the day when the night is preparing itself to set in. As a continuation of the exchanges of respective life updates, the woman talks about her children and their names, birthdays and other details that the man might care less for. To hide her resentment toward her kids, she begins to praise the perks of motherhood and how blessed she feels to be their mother. It is an ironic moment if her actual feelings towards her kids are considered.
The infusion of dialogues in the poem colour it with authenticity and provides a more realistic view to the readers. The man departs and the woman “sits staring” (alliteration) while nursing her youngest child. She projects her emotions on nature, in this case, the wind who acts as her silent partner readily listening to her lamentation (pathetic fallacy). Her final words “they have eaten me alive” clears all the vague interpretations one might fall into. Completely aligning with the other side of the spectrum, the woman, at last, reveals her true feelings about her children who consume not only her time but her existence as well. She is only known as their mother now, devoid of any identity of her own.
It is far from inappropriateness to consider a life completely different from what one is living at the present. Humans can never exhaust desiring which is intrinsic to them.
The world is full of opportunities and the woman in the poem, who might be contemplating a life where she didn’t marry and otherwise pursued her dreams, is natural. She is not satisfied with the current pace and style of living and her dejection rightly affirms her expectations which she thinks she should have signed for. Harwood’s take on motherhood in a subtly dark fashion should not be a subject of moral criticism because literature allows everyone to put forward their views irrespective of any social stigmas. Not all mothers think alike. And one should respect that.
