Gwen Harwood With My Father's Gun Analysis

Gwen Harwood (1920 – 1995):
Harwood has fond memories of her childhood in Queensland which often appear in her poems. She was married in 1945 and moved to Tasmania. She began writing in her thirties to express the things that gave her life meaning.
Originally she preferred pseudonyms but changed to poetry because of her growing reputation. The poetry she writes is deeply personal and presents a strong sense of identity; she also presents unusual perspectives on everyday experiences and relationships.
A love of music and interest in theology and philosophy is also present in her work.
Her poetry often explores parts of life through past and present as well as innocence and wisdom. They usually emphasize strong connections between imagination,
logic, creativity and reasoning.
Hardwoods appreciation of Romanticist (romance) poets, such as Keats, Coleridge and Tennyson, has lead to her exploring similar themes in some of her poems.

Poetic Style:
Wit and sarcasm are commonly used elements in Harwood’s poems; they are used to portray both positive and negative human traits, attitudes and values. Selfishness and thoughtlessness are often scorned.
All of Harwood’s poems posses a certain lucidity and eloquence, this is often enlivened by emotions. The characters in the poems are very well defined; each has their own individual persona and attitude.
Suffering and transience are shown to be a part of life through the use of Christian imagery and allusions. Water, childhood and music are common symbols used, ironically enough, to portray the universal emotions of pain, regret, frustration and loss.

Barn Owl:
This poem describes the harsh lesson learnt by the young child speaker after she sneaks into the family barn and shoots and owl with her father’s shotgun. This act makes her realize the reality of death, there is also a confessional quality to the poem.
There is also a confronting, visceral quality to the poem. Self-knowledge is presented with self-disgust in short statements with little use of enjambment. There is a preference for monosyllabic words and truncated sentences. The father is portrayed to be a sound judge as he tells her to “finish what you have begun” so that she learns to accept responsibility for her actions. The child’s gender is deliberately left unstated, she (assuming it’s a she) changes from someone who is “obedient” to a “horny fiend” who is no longer confident but “afraid” . The child starts as confident “wispy haired” “master of life and death” then she “rose” “watched” “fired” and finally “learned” and “wept”.
Initially we are show a golden child “blessed by sun” who steps out of her fathers control who is “robbed of power/by sleep”. There is clearly a planned quality to the child’s actions. She believes herself nothing short of heroic in being a “master of life and death.”
Sensory details, such as “urine scented hay”, build tension and expectancy. This planned quality is shattered by the victim’s powerlessness against the gun. She realizes the extent of her action when she sees “this obscene bundle of stuff”. The fathers arrival marks the end of her childhood innocence. “end what you have begun” represents a painful rite of passage.

Now for my analysis:
The poem is about a young girl shooting an owl and then realizing that doing so was not heroic but quite evil really. She then loses her childhood innocence when she has to end what she had begun.
“Daybreak: the household slept” and “A horny fiend, I crept” show that what the child is doing is private and probably sneaky/shifty. (a “horny fiend” symbolizes devil horns.)
“With my father’s gun” furthers this idea of sneakiness as it is not her gun and she leaves her father to “dream of a child obedient”.
The father is portrayed as powerless “robbed of power by sleep”. The owls itself is portrayed as very high and powerful, it doesn’t flutter into the barn…it swoops in and stays “on a high beam” where it can view and be master of all. Sensory language such as “urine scented hay” increases the suspense of the poem. The child is also portrayed as a powerful figure “master of life and death” a “wisp haired judge” but one does get the idea that her power is foolish and evil.
“He swayed, ruined, beating his only wing” clearly shows that she immediately regrets her action. “Afraid by the fallen gun, a lonely child” shows that she is not high and mighty anymore but is weak and pathetic.
Again sensory language appears, such as “obscene bundle of stuff” and “dribbled through loose straw,” but these now emphasize a feeling of horror and despair that the child is feeling. “Mirror my cruelty” is a very good phase; basically it is metaphorically suggesting that the child can see her cruelty mirrored in the owls eyes. Using the term “fallen gun” may have religious connections to Satan and the fallen angles but I think it just means that she dropped it in horror or that the gun is not powerful
anymore.
“End what you have begun” marks the end of her childhood innocence. It shows the fathers power over her irresponsibility and of course shows that she finished the job.

Nightfall:
Basically the female author is taking a walk with her very old father as they come to terms with his impending death.
• The father’s age and frailty emphasize the bond between father and daughter
• The title “nightfall” symbolizes the “eternal sleep” of death
• The first half of the poem is comprised of short truncated sentences but the final 4 stanzas have more enjambment with the final stanza being one sentence.
• Techniques used: enjambment, truncated, allusions, rhyme, rhythm, tone,
• “Now the season…is come” creates a feeling of tension at the coming death
• “You take this late walk” late could mean that the time of day is late but most likely symbolizes the lateness of the fathers life. When a deceased is mentioned they are referred to as late.
• “Link your…comforter” is an example of irony as, though the father is utterly dependent on the daughter (due to his old age), but she still relies on him for comfort and he still gives to her.
• “Far distant suburbs shine” allusion to the gates of heaven which the father will soon be visiting.
• “Let us walk for this hour/ as if death had no power” shows that they are walking companionably with each other; they forget the coming death for this hour as they enjoy each others company for one last hour. It creates a tone of sadness. It is also an allusion to Macbeth.
• “your passionate…ancient innocence” an example of irony as people often refer to childhood innocence, ancient innocence suggests that the father has reverted back to being like a child in his old age. This contrasts to Barn Owl, where the child loses her innocence.
• “Or were…from earth.” Basically means that our loved ones may die but their memory will live on. It could also be partly in reference to the afterlife.
• “You keep…shivery-grass.” Further emphasizes the fathers return to a childhood like state. It also shows that, in the face of his death, he begins to appreciate small details of life that we all neglect until we are about to lose them.
• “you speak…breaking-point” adds further tension to the tone and also helps to begin concluding the poem. More factually interpreted it could be a reference to the rasping voice that elderly people often have.
• “Old King…journey done.” This is an allusion to King Lear. It shows the poem is concluding as is the father life.