At Mornington
... older and the sense of magical images when looking into a shell is like her childhood memories are magical. Then she goes on talking about how they have changed and they are standing “by (his) parents’ grave in silence” at this point in time the rhythm of the poem has slowed down because it is talking about death. Although she is talking about death she does not describe as bleak but rather more solemn. Death is still but in this poem she blends in the movements of nature, “cadences of the trees”, “quick of the autumn grasses” making the poem seem peaceful and they have acceptance of death. The season is autumn and it suggest a time of passing and he end of life. There is a distinct contrast between the memories of childhood, life and the images of being in a cemetery. Gwen Harwood describes the importance of friendship, memories and anticipation through the significance of the “wholeness of this day to share as we will between us”. In stanza 3 Gwen Harwood uses imagery to represent her experiences and the way she thinks life goes. Gwen Harwood uses pumpkins to denote life, “fine pumpkins grown on a trellis so it seemed that the vines were rising”, the word rising in this context means they are growing towards the sun (the climbing of the trellis) “above their humble station”. The pumpkins are images of the individual. The “airy defiance of nature” is used to describe the pumpkin vines, they normally grow out on the ground but these pumpkin vines want to grow up towards the sun. During the first six lines of the stanzas there is a lack of pauses to express continuity. “a skinful of elements” is a body filled with experience and knowledge, she is connecting herself to the natural world and yet the natural world has a sense of coldness towards death, which links to “settle(ment of ) our flesh in final shape”. Images of light has also been used to describe death “fastness of the light” the light referred to in this case is the light people say they see before they die. Although death, “that time of life”, is one of the issues present in this poem Gwen Harwood does not highlight it in a negative manner, she talks about it with acceptance and peace. In stanza 4 there is a section that has been indented this is because it is a memory of a dream (it is not real). Once again water is used to symbolize as a life sustainers and life giver. They are talking the whole day and as night fell there is still water left in the pitcher, this implies that what they share will never go, it will always be there, water is never dry thus their friendship is always there. Water is a life giver, it is never used up in a day neither is their friendship, “we have one day” represents water sustaining their friends, making it stronger. To them it doesn’t matter if there is only one day because it is enough to sustain their friendship foreve...