In the Park (poem)

"In the Park"
by Gwen Harwood
First published inThe Bulletin
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Publication date8 March 1961
Lines14

"In the Park" is a 1961 poem by Australian author Gwen Harwood.[1]

It was first published in The Bulletin on 8 March 1961 as by "Walter Lehmann",[2] a pseudonym of Harwood's, and was subsequently reprinted in the author's collections and other poetry anthologies. Later publications carried Harwood's name as the author.[1]

Synopsis

An unnamed woman sits in a park with three children playing around her. She is unexpectedly joined by an ex-lover. As they chat about the children she visualises a cartoon-like speech balloon above his head in which is written "...but for the grace of God."

Critical reception

In his book Reading Australian Poetry Andrew Taylor set out to discuss Harwood's "poetry in relation to questions of identity." He decided to use this poem as a starting point. "Suburban monotony and tedium, the niggardly penny-pinching that often comes from having children, the disharmony, the aimlessness: they are all economically conveyed...What we have here is not a muddled poem, but a subtle demonstration of the textuality of identity, its characteristic, if you like, of not being itself."[3]

Writing about the poem's final line ("They have eaten me alive.") Ann-Marie Priest commented: "The sentiment was profoundly challenging for its time. The idea that a woman's children could consume her very being was entirely antithetical to the dominant discourse of motherhood, in which a woman was supposed to find her only true fulfillment in bearing and raising children. Even worse was the suggestion that a mother might resent this unthinking consumption of herself by her offspring."[4]

Publication history

After the poem's initial publication in The Bulletin it was reprinted as follows:

  • Poems by Gwen Harwood, Angus and Robertson, 1963[5]
  • New Impulses in Australian Poetry edited by Rodney Hall and Thomas Shapcott, University of Queensland Press, 1968[6]
  • The Land's Meaning edited by L. M. Hannan and B. A. Breen, Macmillan, 1973[7]
  • Selected Poems by Gwen Harwood, Angus and Robertson, 1975[8]
  • The Collins Book of Australian Poetry edited by Rodney Hall, Collins, 1981[9]
  • Cross-Country : A Book of Australian Verse edited by John Barnes and Brian MacFarlane, Heinemann, 1984[10]
  • Two Centuries of Australian Poetry edited by Mark O’Connor, Oxford University Press, 1988[11]
  • The Faber Book of Modern Australian Verse edited by Vincent Buckley, Faber, 1991[12]
  • The Penguin Book of Modern Australian Poetry edited by John Tranter and Philip Mead, Penguin, 1991[13]
  • 50 Years of Queensland Poetry : 1940s to 1990s edited by Philip Neilsen and Helen Horton, Central Queensland University Press, 1998[14]
  • Australian Verse : An Oxford Anthology edited by John Leonard, Oxford University Press, 1998[15]
  • Selected Poems : A New Edition by Gwen Harwood, Angus and Robertson, 2001[16]
  • The Indigo Book of Modern Australian Sonnets edited by Geoff Page, Indigo, 2003[17]
  • Motherlode : Australian Women's Poetry 1986 - 2008 edited by Jennifer Harrison and Kate Waterhouse, Puncher and Wattmann, 2009[18]
  • Mappings of the Plane : New Selected Poems by Gwen Harwood, edited by Gregory Kratzmann and Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Fyfield Books, 2009[19]
  • The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry edited by John Leonard, Puncher & Wattmann, 2009[20]
  • Australian Poetry Journal, Vol 2 No 1, 2012[1]
  • The Best 100 Poems of Gwen Harwood, Black Inc., 2014[21]
  • Love is Strong as Death edited by Paul Kelly, Hamish Hamilton, 2019[22]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Austlit — "In the Park" by Gwen Harwood". Austlit. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  2. ^ ""In the Park" by Walter Lehmann". The Bulletin, 8 March 1961, p28. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  3. ^ Reading Australian Poetry by Andrew Taylor, University of NSW Press, 1987, pp. 113-115 Accessed: 13 February 2026.
  4. ^ The Cambridge Companion to Australian Poetry edited by Ann Vickery. "Chapter 10. Burning Sappho: Gwen Harwood's Incendiary Verse" by Ann-Marie Priest, pp. 167-182
  5. ^ "Poems by Gwen Harwood". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  6. ^ "New Impulses in Australian Poetry edited by Rodney Hall and Thomas Shapcott". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  7. ^ "The Land's Meaning edited by L. M. Hannan and B. A. Breen". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  8. ^ "Selected Poems by Gwen Harwood (1975)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  9. ^ "The Collins Book of Australian Poetry edited by Rodney Hall". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  10. ^ "Cross-Country : A Book of Australian Verse edited by John Barnes and Brian MacFarlane". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  11. ^ "Two Centuries of Australian Poetry edited by Mark O'Connor". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  12. ^ "The Faber Book of Modern Australian Verse edited by Vincent Buckley". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  13. ^ "The Penguin Book of Modern Australian Poetry (Penguin)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  14. ^ "50 Years of Queensland Poetry : 1940s to 1990s edited by Philip Neilsen and Helen Horton". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  15. ^ "Australian Verse : An Oxford Anthology edited by John Leonard". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  16. ^ "Selected Poems : A New Edition by Gwen Harwood (2001)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  17. ^ "The Indigo Book of Modern Australian Sonnets edited by Geoff Page". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  18. ^ "Motherlode : Australian Women's Poetry 1986 - 2008 edited by Jennifer Harrison and Kate Waterhouse". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  19. ^ "Mappings of the Plane : New Selected Poems edited by Gregory Kratzmann and Chris Wallace-Crabbe". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  20. ^ "The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry edited by John Leonard". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  21. ^ "The Best 100 Poems of Gwen Harwood by Gwen Harwood". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  22. ^ "Love is Strong as Death edited by Paul Kelly". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
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