Gwen Harwood’s ‘Suburban Sonnet: Boxing Day’ and Sylvia Plath’s ‘Morning Song’ both explore the idea of a loss of identity due to motherhood. Harwood’s poem follows an unhappy woman oppressed by her role as a suburban mother on Boxing Day. On the other hand, Plath’s poem journey inside a mother’s mind as she rapidly beings to lose a sense of identity after the birth of her child. Both poets use structure, symbolism, language and the title to explore the idea of identity loss through motherhood.
Both Harwood and Plath have utilised structure to explore the idea a mother’s identity loss. Harwood’s poem is ironically written in the form of a sonnet, as traditionally sonnets are used in praise of a woman, so this poem is ironically praising the …show more content…
Harwood has used a range of objects to symbolise the mother’s distraught with her identity, such as the Christmas “globes” that “distort her”, representing the distortion of her identity as she takes up the role of a suburban mother. This is also exemplified through the mother gathering “up a new” and now “dismembered toy”, this symbolises the child’s effect on her, much like the toy she has assembled a role solely to support the child, and has become dismembered mental due to a loss of identity. Unlike Harwood, Plath has used figurative language to symbolise the mother’s loss of identity. Plath’s uses a simile in the opening line claiming the child’s love has set them “going like a fat gold watch”, which is ironically positive imagery as the mother’s issues with identity are largely negative. This symbolises the initial joys of child-bearing, which are followed by distress a mother loses her identity to the child. Plath further represents this through a conceit, as the mother is described as “cloud that” produces “a mirror”, meaning that as a cloud eventually precipitates it forms a puddle, but the cloud disappears. This represents the child’s appearance resulting in the mother’s identity disappearing. Both poets have utilised symbolism to represent themes of motherhood costing a woman’s
Both Harwood and Plath have utilised structure to explore the idea a mother’s identity loss. Harwood’s poem is ironically written in the form of a sonnet, as traditionally sonnets are used in praise of a woman, so this poem is ironically praising the …show more content…
Harwood has used a range of objects to symbolise the mother’s distraught with her identity, such as the Christmas “globes” that “distort her”, representing the distortion of her identity as she takes up the role of a suburban mother. This is also exemplified through the mother gathering “up a new” and now “dismembered toy”, this symbolises the child’s effect on her, much like the toy she has assembled a role solely to support the child, and has become dismembered mental due to a loss of identity. Unlike Harwood, Plath has used figurative language to symbolise the mother’s loss of identity. Plath’s uses a simile in the opening line claiming the child’s love has set them “going like a fat gold watch”, which is ironically positive imagery as the mother’s issues with identity are largely negative. This symbolises the initial joys of child-bearing, which are followed by distress a mother loses her identity to the child. Plath further represents this through a conceit, as the mother is described as “cloud that” produces “a mirror”, meaning that as a cloud eventually precipitates it forms a puddle, but the cloud disappears. This represents the child’s appearance resulting in the mother’s identity disappearing. Both poets have utilised symbolism to represent themes of motherhood costing a woman’s