Gwen Harwood
Encyclopedia
Gwen Harwood AO née Gwendoline Nessie Foster, was an Australian poet and librettist
. Gwen Harwood is regarded as one of Australia's finest poets, publishing over 420 works, including 386 poems and 13 librettos. She won numerous poetry awards and prizes. Her work is commonly studied in schools and university courses.
Gwen Harwood is the mother of the author John Harwood
.
and brought up in Brisbane
. She attended Brisbane Girls Grammar School
and was an organist at All Saints Church when she was young. She completed a music teacher's diploma, and also worked as a typist at the War Damage Commission from 1942. Early in her life, she developed an interest in literature, philosophy and music.
She moved to Tasmania
after her marriage to linguist William Harwood in September 1945. Here she developed her lifelong interest in the work of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein
"which informs her entire opus".
Her father played piano, violin and the flute. Both Gwen and her brother were given piano lessons, and originally Gwen wanted to be a musician. Gwen's grandmother introduced her to poetry; this inspired her and became her life long calling and passion.
in 1944, but her work did not start appearing regularly in journals and books until the 1960s. Her first book of poems, titled Poems, was published in 1963, followed in 1968 by Poems Volume II. Other books include The Lion's Bride (1981), Bone Scan (1988), and The Present Tense (1995). There are also several versions of a Selected Poems, including one from Penguin
in 2001.
Harwood used a range of pseudonym
s in her early work, such as Walter Lehmann, W.W. Hagendoor (an anagram
of her name), Francis Geyer, Timothy (TF) Kline, Miriam Stone, and Alan Carvosso.
She also wrote libretti for composers such as Larry Sitsky
, James Penberthy
, Don Kay
and Ian Cugley
.
She corresponded over the years with several poet friends, including Vincent Buckley
, A. D. Hope
, Vivian Smith
, and Norman Talbot, and served as President of the Tasmanian Branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers.
Her poetry has been used by many students who are completing the Higher School Certificate (HSC) in New South Wales, Australia, and by Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) students in Victoria, Australia.
The style and technique of Harwood's poetry has led to several of her works being employed by the New South Wales Board of Studies as prescribed texts for the High School Cerificate. Primary focus in the English course is placed on the analysis of the themes expressed in Harwood's poetry, and how such themes are relevant in modern society. Her work is also used as a text for the Victorian Certificate of Education and West Australian Certificate of Education Literature Courses in the poetry section for its literary value and complex themes.
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
. Gwen Harwood is regarded as one of Australia's finest poets, publishing over 420 works, including 386 poems and 13 librettos. She won numerous poetry awards and prizes. Her work is commonly studied in schools and university courses.
Gwen Harwood is the mother of the author John Harwood
John Harwood (writer)
John Harwood was born in Hobart, Tasmania and is an Australian poet, literary critic and novelist.Educated at the University of Tasmania and Cambridge University, Harwood has worked as an academic at Flinders University in South Australia...
.
Life
She was born in Taringa, QueenslandTaringa, Queensland
Taringa is a suburb of Brisbane, Australia located 5 km south-west of the Brisbane CBD. Taringa is mostly residential, except for a small number of commercial buildings mostly clustered along Moggill Road...
and brought up in Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
. She attended Brisbane Girls Grammar School
Brisbane Girls Grammar School
Brisbane Girls' Grammar School, is an independent, secular, day school for girls, located in Spring Hill, an inner suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia....
and was an organist at All Saints Church when she was young. She completed a music teacher's diploma, and also worked as a typist at the War Damage Commission from 1942. Early in her life, she developed an interest in literature, philosophy and music.
She moved to Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
after her marriage to linguist William Harwood in September 1945. Here she developed her lifelong interest in the work of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He was professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1939 until 1947...
"which informs her entire opus".
Her father played piano, violin and the flute. Both Gwen and her brother were given piano lessons, and originally Gwen wanted to be a musician. Gwen's grandmother introduced her to poetry; this inspired her and became her life long calling and passion.
Literary career
Gwen Harwood had written poetry for many years, and her first poem was published in MeanjinMeanjin
Meanjin is an Australian literary journal. The name - pronounced Mee-AN-jin - is derived from an Aboriginal word for the land where the city Brisbane is located.It was founded in December 1940, in Brisbane, by Clem Christesen...
in 1944, but her work did not start appearing regularly in journals and books until the 1960s. Her first book of poems, titled Poems, was published in 1963, followed in 1968 by Poems Volume II. Other books include The Lion's Bride (1981), Bone Scan (1988), and The Present Tense (1995). There are also several versions of a Selected Poems, including one from Penguin
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
in 2001.
Harwood used a range of pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
s in her early work, such as Walter Lehmann, W.W. Hagendoor (an anagram
Anagram
An anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place, Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort. Someone who...
of her name), Francis Geyer, Timothy (TF) Kline, Miriam Stone, and Alan Carvosso.
She also wrote libretti for composers such as Larry Sitsky
Larry Sitsky
Lazar Sitsky AM, usually referred to as Larry Sitsky, born 10 September 1934, is an Australian composer, pianist, and music educator and scholar...
, James Penberthy
James Penberthy
James Penberthy AM was an Australian composer and journalist.He was born Albert James Penberthy in Melbourne in 1917. He served with the Royal Australian Navy during World War II. He then studied at the University of Melbourne, where he obtained first class honours in composition...
, Don Kay
Don Kay (composer)
Donald Henry Kay AM is an Australian classical composer.Don Kay attained a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Melbourne after which he taught music at Colac High School, Victoria, 1957-59. He then went on to teach music at Peckham Manor Comprehensive School for Boys, London, UK 1959-64...
and Ian Cugley
Ian Cugley
- Early life:He was born in Melbourne in 1945. He gained early prominence with two orchestral works, Pan, the Lake and Prelude for Orchestra, which were performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1967 and subsequently recorded on EMI...
.
She corresponded over the years with several poet friends, including Vincent Buckley
Vincent Buckley
Vincent Thomas Buckley was an Australian poet, teacher, editor, essayist and critic.-Life:He was born in 1925 in Romsey, Victoria and was educated at both the University of Melbourne and the :University of Cambridge, and died in Melbourne in 1988..Buckley edited the magazine, Prospect, from 1958...
, A. D. Hope
A. D. Hope
Alec Derwent Hope AC OBE was an Australian poet and essayist known for his satirical slant. He was also a critic, teacher and academic.-Life:...
, Vivian Smith
Vivian Smith
Vivian Brian Smith is an Australian poet. He is considered one of the most lyrical and observant Australian poets of his generation....
, and Norman Talbot, and served as President of the Tasmanian Branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers.
Her poetry has been used by many students who are completing the Higher School Certificate (HSC) in New South Wales, Australia, and by Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) students in Victoria, Australia.
Literary themes and style
Harwood's poetry has recurring themes of motherhood and the stifled role of women, particularly those of young mothers. Her poem "In the Park" established a certain feminist reputation but others of her poems treat motherhood in a more complex and nuanced way. Music is another recurring motif. The Tasmanian landscape, and Aboriginal dispossession of that landscape, form another theme in much of her writing. She also wrote series of poems with recurring characters, two of the most notorious being Professor Eisenbart and Kröte. Many of her poems also include biblical references and religious allusions.The style and technique of Harwood's poetry has led to several of her works being employed by the New South Wales Board of Studies as prescribed texts for the High School Cerificate. Primary focus in the English course is placed on the analysis of the themes expressed in Harwood's poetry, and how such themes are relevant in modern society. Her work is also used as a text for the Victorian Certificate of Education and West Australian Certificate of Education Literature Courses in the poetry section for its literary value and complex themes.
Awards
- 1942: The pancake manorThe Pancake ManorThe Pancake Manor, formerly St. Luke's Anglican Church, is a privately owned restaurant found in Charlotte Street in the Brisbane CBD of Queensland, Australia. A heritage listed building, over a hundred years old, houses the restaurant has been famous for its pancakes for almost 30 years, and its...
- 1958: Meanjin Poetry Prize
- 1959: Meanjin Poetry Prize
- 1975: Grace Leven Prize for PoetryGrace Leven Prize for PoetryThe Grace Leven Prize for Poetry is an annual award given in the name of Grace Leven who died in 1922. It was established by William Baylebridge who "made a provision for an annual poetry prize in memory of 'my benefactress Grace Leven' and for the publication of his own work"...
- 1977: Robert Frost Medallion (now known as Christopher Brennan AwardChristopher Brennan AwardThe Christopher Brennan Award is an Australian award given for lifetime achievement in poetry. The award, established circa 1976, takes the form of a bronze plaque; it recognizes a poet who produces work of "sustained quality and distinction"...
) - 1978: Patrick White AwardPatrick White AwardThe Patrick White Award is an annual literary prize established by Patrick White. White used his 1973 Nobel Prize in Literature award to establish a trust for this prize....
- 1980: The Age Book of the YearThe Age Book of the YearThe Age Book of the Year Awards are annual literary awards presented by Melbourne's The Age newspaper. The awards were first presented in 1974. Since 1998 they have been presented as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival...
Award Book of the Year and Non-fiction Award for Blessed City - 1988: University of TasmaniaUniversity of TasmaniaThe University of Tasmania is a medium-sized public Australian university based in Tasmania, Australia. Officially founded on 1 January 1890, it was the fourth university to be established in nineteenth-century Australia...
Honorary D.Litt - 1989: Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)Order of AustraliaThe Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
- 1989: Victorian Premier's Literary AwardVictorian Premier's Literary AwardThe Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Governmentwith the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry....
for Bone Scan - 1990: J.J. Bray Award
- 1994: University of QueenslandUniversity of QueenslandThe University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in state of Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest and largest university in Queensland and the fifth oldest in the nation...
Honorary doctorate - 1994: Latrobe University Honorary doctorate
Poetry
- Poems (1963)
- Poems Volume Two (1968)
- The Lion's Bride (1981)
- Bone Scan (1988)
- The Present Tense, ed. Alison Hoddinott (Imprint, 1995) ISBN 1-875892-28-1
- Gwen Harwood: Selected Poems (Penguin, 2001) ISBN 0-14-100668-4
- Gwen Harwood: Collected Poems 1943-1995 (UQP, 2003) ISBN 0-7022-3352-8
Letters
- Blessed City: Letters to Thomas Riddell 1943, ed. Alison Hoddinott (Angus & Robertson, 1990) ISBN 0-207-16587-4
- A Steady Storm of Correspondence: Selected Letters of Gwen Harwood 1943-1995, ed. Gregory Kratzmann (UQP, 2001) ISBN 0-7022-3257-2
Further reading
- Strauss, Jennifer (1992) Boundary Conditions: The Poetry of Gwen Harwood (UQP) ISBN 0-7022-2412-X
- Trigg, Stephanie (1994) Gwen Harwood (OUP) ISBN 0-19-553280-5
External links
- An analysis of the writings of Gwen Harwood
- Bored of Studies - FAQ - Gwen Harwood
- Gwen Harwood by Stephanie Trigg (Pdf)
- Useful links