english study guide
As we journey through life, we come to know ourselves and the world around us. This occurs through our interctions with others and experiences, and exploration of self. 20th century Australian modern port, Gwen Harwood was interested in ways in which we come to know ourselves and develop throughout our lives. Gwen Harwood shows concerns important to human experience including life, death, spirituality, the journey towards self-knowledge, the innocence and vulnerability of childhood, which is explored through childhood experiences. She is able to achieve this in poems such as The Glass Jar, Alter Ego and At Mornington through the use of dualities, metaphors, similes, musical motifs, biblical allusions, juxtaposition, symbolism and imagery, which help construct meaning.
The Glass Jar illustrates the journey of a young boy from childhood innocence to maturity, knowledge and experience, but in the form of dreams while also making use of musical and biblical imagery. The poem shows the potential and possibilities of a child’s youth and imagination symbolized by sunlight trapped in a glass jar. The ‘jar of light’ represents the goodness an innocence of youth, which the boy is ‘hoping to keep’, but also deeply grieves their briefness and fragility. It explores the trauma and betrayal experienced by a child due to his naivety, resulting in destruction of hope and loss of innocence. The poem describes a clear example of an Oedipus complex, in which the child’s father acts as his rival and through the “gross violence” done to his mother, and denies him his comforter. Musical imagery is once again used, this time to convey the complexity of the sexual relationship; “Love’s proud executants played from a score”, which is beyond the child’s comprehension. The musical metaphor “His father held fiddle and bow”
The Glass Jar Such images of light assist Harwood in conveying her ideas about the purity and goodness associated with innocence and the extended metaphor of ‘the day’
The Glass Jar illustrates the journey of a young boy from childhood innocence to maturity, knowledge and experience, but in the form of dreams while also making use of musical and biblical imagery. The poem shows the potential and possibilities of a child’s youth and imagination symbolized by sunlight trapped in a glass jar. The ‘jar of light’ represents the goodness an innocence of youth, which the boy is ‘hoping to keep’, but also deeply grieves their briefness and fragility. It explores the trauma and betrayal experienced by a child due to his naivety, resulting in destruction of hope and loss of innocence. The poem describes a clear example of an Oedipus complex, in which the child’s father acts as his rival and through the “gross violence” done to his mother, and denies him his comforter. Musical imagery is once again used, this time to convey the complexity of the sexual relationship; “Love’s proud executants played from a score”, which is beyond the child’s comprehension. The musical metaphor “His father held fiddle and bow”
The Glass Jar Such images of light assist Harwood in conveying her ideas about the purity and goodness associated with innocence and the extended metaphor of ‘the day’