Gwen Harwood's Autobiographical Poem At Mornington

Indeed, through individual transformations, subsequent sensations of timelessness and stability demonstrate the restorative ability of landscapes. Harwood’s autobiographical poetry “At Mornington” conveys her personal reflection of childhood innocence depicted in her biblical interaction with a remembered landscape – “As a child I could walk on water – the next wave, the next wave”. However, the interruptive aposiopesis in “Memories of childhood iridescent, fugitive as light in a sea wet shell” signifies both Harwood’s nostalgic connection with the landscape, and the ability of nature to provoke a depressing contemplation of life, evident in the pessimistic immersion “among avenues of the dead”. The construction of a pumpkin as “a parable of