Harwood's "Impromptu For Ann Jennings" And "Home Of Mercy"

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of the husband's in the poem which also leads the reader to believe that the women are independent and strong.
The opening two stanzas are very reflective of their times together.
"Sing, memory, sing those seasons in the freezing
suburb of Fern Tree, a rock-shaded place
with tree ferns, gullies, snowfalls and eye-pleasing
prospects from paths along the mountain-face"

The first stanza in particular describes the setting in wonderful imagery. From this we are able to create an image of the environments that Gwen Harwood and Ann Jennings lived in. Harwood also talks of her memories, and the fact that they are singing, which is a very romanticised way of thinking of them which makes you think that the memories are fond ones. The lines

"Nursing our babies by huge fires of wattle"

seem almost romantic in the imagery. Harwood describes childbirth here as something wonderful, not something negative. Over the next two stanzas' Harwood discusses the negative side of ...

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with her own. She discusses the fact that women are independent and don't need men, whereas society in that time is dominated by males. Harwood disagrees and goes against society in her views here, which is an important part of the poem.

In the next two stanzas Harwood discusses the way that women have travelled through the darkness and have been resurrected into freedom.
"Now we move where we will"

Their children are grown up and have their own lives. The mothers now have a new freedom. There is a strong sense of joy and happiness almost like being reborn into a new life instead of moving into a different stage of life. This could also be taken as they have moved through the ...

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