Poetry Intertextual

Poetry Intertextual

The anthology “Lines to Time” includes a wide range of poems written by a selection of poets. What makes “Line to Time” interesting and enjoyable to read is the variety of topic and treatment the poets use to make their poetry effective.

The range of poets featured in “Lines to Time” use a variety of poetic devices and writer’s techniques such as symbolism, imagery, alliteration, onomatopoeia, tone, metaphors and humour, to effectively construct an evocative poem.

Symbolism and imagery plays a large role in Gwen Harwood’s poems “Suburban Sonnet”, “ Suburban Sonnet: Boxing Day” and “Father and Child”.

“Suburban Sonnet” tackles the issue of the harshness of motherhood. Harwood creates the image that the woman in the poem has sacrificed her dreams and aspirations, to become a mother figure for her children. This image is portrayed through Harwood’s contrasting ideas that the way she moves around the kitchen is similar to the complex composition of a fugue. “She practices a fugue, though it can matter to no one now if she lays well or not.”

Symbolism and imagery help Harwood to achieve the poem’s purpose in creating a sympathetic tone towards the woman’s struggle. The use of rhyming couplets and irregular short sentences create a hectic and disorganised structure and rhythm to the poem, which symbolises the mother’s life. Harwood uses emotive description and olfactory imagery to allow the audience to experience exactly what the woman is feeling. “A pot boils over.

As she rushes to the stove too late, a wave of nausea overpowers” Harwood creates the image of a pot of milk boiling over and a horrible odour dispersing from it. The use of olfactory imagery presents the audience with a common smell recognised as a disgusting stench, forcing the audience to feel empathy towards the poor woman.

The mouse caught in the trap is symbolic of her dreams and hopes that are crushed and demolished when she made a sacrifice for the sake of her family. The mouse is symbolic of the mother, who is stuck in a trap and is unable to break free. Harwood uses this symbolism to express the major thematic concern, that she has become a slave to her family.

“Suburban Sonnet” is a very bitter and melancholic poem, and is told from the author’s point of view, creating the sense that maybe the woman in the sonnet could be the poet herself.