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Suburban Sonnet Summary & Analysis
by Gwen Harwood

Suburban Sonnet Summary & Analysis
by Gwen Harwood

  • Intro
  • Summary
  • Themes
  • Line-by-Line
    Explanations
  • Symbols
  • Poetic
    Devices
  • Vocabulary &
    References
  • Form, Meter, &
    Rhyme Scheme
  • Speaker
  • Setting
  • Context
  • Resources
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  • “Suburban Sonnet” Introduction

    • The Australian poet Gwen Harwood wrote “Suburban Sonnet” during the peak of her career in the late 1960s. In this poem, the speaker describes a typical day in the life of a suburban housewife who fruitlessly chases her dreams of becoming a professional musician. Through this exploration of the woman’s internal conflict, the speaker delivers a subversive commentary about the psychological and emotional ramifications of modern motherhood. In doing so, the speaker illustrates the tension between the woman's mundane life and her innermost fantasies while also subverting the traditional sonnet form.

  • “Suburban Sonnet” Summary

    • The poem opens with a housewife practicing a musical composition called a fugue, despite the fact that her performance is destined to be unappreciated. Her two children, who are playing on the floor next to her, start screaming at each other, and she has to stop her practice to quiet them down. A pot on the stove then starts boiling over. The woman runs to the pot but it's already too late, and she feels overwhelmed with nausea and pain. As she vigorously scrubs the burnt, scalded milk from the pot, her joy and liveliness seem to trickle down the drain alongside the soapy water. She feels a dull pain deep inside. She remembers performing in front of Rubinstein, a famous pianist, but he seemed bored and unimpressed. Her children, meanwhile, are hovering around a dead mouse caught in a mousetrap. When the mouse's lifeless body just lies there, still, they get scared. The woman tends to her children while she disposes of the dead mouse by wrapping it up on some newspaper, which displays an article featuring recipes to use up old, dry bread.

  • “Suburban Sonnet” Themes

    • Theme The Struggles of Suburban Motherhood

      The Struggles of Suburban Motherhood

      “Suburban Sonnet” explores the domestic life of a woman trying to balance her musical aspirations with her obligations as a housewife. The speaker suggests that the expectations of suburban motherhood are oppressive and stifling, draining women of their ambitions and even their identities themselves—which get subsumed by the demands of caring for their homes and children.

      The poem establishes that this woman once had musical ambitions but has been forced to abandon them upon becoming a mother. She opens the poem practicing the piano and later reflects on how she “[o]nce […] played for Rubenstein," a famous composer. This is a far cry from her current domestic life, however, where she’s surrounded by screaming children and tedious domestic tasks like scouring the stove clean.

      Now, the speaker explains that “it can matter / to no one now if she plays well or not.” The woman’s aspirations have been rendered meaningless and futile because she has two children to look after. Illustrating this, she has to stop practicing her music to break up a petty quarrel between her kids. The demands of domesticity and motherhood, the poem implies, have usurped her personal desires.

      The poem goes on to reveal the psychological pain that this contrast between the woman's inner identity and her social persona as a housewife has caused. This struggle is dramatized through a metaphorical description of the woman’s visceral reaction to a pot of hot water boiling over, in which the speaker says that “a wave of nausea overpowers / subject and counter-subject.” These are musical terms that refer to different components of a type of composition called a fugue. On a figurative level, though, the “subject” could be interpreted as representing the woman’s outer identity as a mother while the “counter-subject” represents her innermost ambitions to become a musician. Notably, both subject and counter-subject are overwhelmed by “a wave of nausea,” demonstrating that both sides of the woman’s persona are ultimately unsatisfied with her life as a suburban mother. The metaphorical references to music powerfully portray the pain and suffering of a human being who has not lived up to her full potential.

      The poem concludes with the image of a dead mouse caught in a mousetrap, which functions as a symbol of the woman’s fate. The woman's children “seem afraid” when “the soft corpse” of the mouse remains still. The speaker introduces some ambiguity by using the word “seem,” which suggests the emotional distance between the mother and her children. While the woman “comforts them” and attends to her children consistently, there is no underlying intimacy or connection. The children might appear to feel a certain way, but she is not able to directly empathize with them. She is simply going through the motions of what society expects her to do, leading to the death of her individuality and inner spirit.

      The dead mouse represents the woman’s extinguished musical aspirations and the deeper spiritual death that resulted from this personal tragedy. The reader is thus left with a sense of dread as the poem ends on a pessimistic note and strongly implies that the woman’s dreams, like the trapped mouse, eventually die with her. The social obligation to be a dutiful mother and wife effectively becomes the “trap” that ensnares (and ultimately destroys) the woman’s career and, most of all, her spirit.

      Where this theme appears in the poem:
      • Lines 1-14

  • Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Suburban Sonnet”

    • Lines 1-2

      She practises a ...
      ... well or not.

      The speaker begins by describing a woman who is playing a fugue, a type of composition where a short melody is introduced and successively taken up by other interweaving parts. This literal depiction of a fugue will take on a metaphorical function as the poem continues.

      The speaker proceeds to say that "it can matter / to no one if she plays well or not," suggesting that the woman's efforts to master the fugue are completely in vain. Right away, then, the speaker portrays the woman's practice as aimless, futile, and doomed for failure. As much as the woman strives for mastery, the rest of the world is indifferent to her progress as a musician (or lack thereof). Overall, these lines imply a strong sense of hopelessness as they demonstrate the contrast between the woman's ongoing investment in her crumbling aspirations and society's apathy towards her struggles.

      The two opening lines also include the poem's first instances of caesura and enjambment, which eventually become two of the most prominent devices used throughout the poem. In the first line, the use of caesura creates a division between the first part of the sentence referencing her musical practice and the second part that addresses its significance to the world at large. The comma conveys both a physical and figurative gap between the woman's efforts and society's attitude. Moreover, the enjambment between the first and second lines capture the distinction between the woman's mindset and her social climate: as the first line ends with the phrase "though it can matter" and the second line begins with "to no one," the separation between these two becomes strikingly clear.

    • Lines 3-5

      Beside her on ...
      ... to the stove

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    • Lines 6-8

      too late, a ...
      ... as she scours

    • Lines 9-12

      the crusted milk. ...
      ... they seem afraid.

    • Lines 13-14

      She comforts them; ...
      ... from stale bread.

  • “Suburban Sonnet” Symbols

    • Symbol The Mouse

      The Mouse

      The last few lines of “Suburban Sonnet” are marked by the death of a mouse, which is killed by a mousetrap set up in the woman’s home. The dead mouse symbolizes the demise of the woman’s musical aspirations, which she is constantly barred from pursuing because of her all-consuming duties as a housewife. The woman’s domestic life entraps her in the same way that the mousetrap ensnares the hapless mouse, destroying her hopes and future.

      Considering the fact that the woman most likely set up the mousetrap herself, the symbolism takes on another layer of meaning: by choosing the stability of the suburban life, the woman has effectively set a “trap” for herself and compromised her own future. The mouse and the woman could be viewed as equally unsuspecting victims, both lured into a trap that would be too tantalizing for most to avoid.

      Where this symbol appears in the poem:
      • Lines 10-14: “The children caper / round a sprung mousetrap where a mouse lies dead. / When the soft corpse won't move they seem afraid. / She comforts them; and wraps it in a paper / featuring: Tasty dishes from stale bread.”
    • Symbol Music

      Music

      When the poem opens, the woman is practicing a fugue, which eventually becomes symbolic of her circumstances in life. A fugue is a type of musical composition where one short melody (known as the subject) is introduced and taken up by the other melodies (known as the counter-subject), ultimately interweaving the various melodies.

      This is, on a figurative level, what happens in the poem more broadly. As the woman is trying to practice, she is interrupted by her two children, who break out in a fight right next to her (their chatter becoming another "melody"). This disruption is followed by another as a pot on the stove boils over and the woman has to attend to the mess (yet another "melody"). While doing so, the speaker invokes the fugue once again, metaphorically stating that "a wave of nausea overpowers subject and counter-subject" in reference to the woman.

      The musical terms "subject" and "counter-subject," in turn, become a representation of the division between the woman's outer persona as a housewife (the subject) and her inner nature as an aspiring musician (the counter-subject). The speaker explains how both sides of the woman's personality are sickened by this experience, demonstrating the superficiality of her housewife identity.

      By the end of the poem, the children's disruptions have completely consumed the woman's time and attention, just as the melodies are subsumed by the larger pattern in a fugue. The poem concludes with the image of a dead mouse, symbolizing the demise of the woman's future goals. By framing the woman's predicament in the context of a fugue, the speaker effectively uses musical metaphors to capture the inner turmoil of an aspiring musician who simply can't catch a break.

      Where this symbol appears in the poem:
      • Lines 1-2: “She practises a fugue, though it can matter / to no one now if she plays well or not.”
      • Lines 6-7: “a wave of nausea overpowers / subject and counter-subject.”
      • Lines 9-10: “Once she played / for Rubinstein, who yawned.”

  • “Suburban Sonnet” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

    • Metaphor

      Musical language and references take on symbolic weight in the poem, with the fugue specifically coming to represent the woman's circumstances in life (for more on this, look to the "Symbols" section of this guide). Within this broader symbolism, however, there is a more explicit metaphor as well. This comes in lines 6-7, where the speaker says:

      [...] a wave of nausea overpowers
      subject and counter-subject. [...]

      In the type of musical composition known as a fugue, one short melody (known as the subject) is introduced and taken up by the other melodies (known as the counter-subject). The speaker uses these musical terms to represent two different parts of this woman's identity: the "subject" here represents the woman's outer persona as a housewife, while the "counter-subject" represents her more authentic inner self, an aspiring musician. That both parts of the woman's identity are "overpower[ed]" by "nausea" demonstrates just how sickening and demoralizing she finds the demands of being a housewife.

      Another metaphor follows directly on the heels of this one, as the speaker says:

      [...] Zest and love
      drain out with soapy water as she scours
      the crusted milk. [...]

      In other words, as the woman vigorously scrapes burnt, crusty milk off the pot, she feels as though her own zest for life is getting sucked down the drain along with the soapy, dirty water. The metaphor here reveals how the demands of caring for a home drain the woman of her vitality, and perhaps even of the love she has to offer her children.

      Where metaphor appears in the poem:
      • Lines 6-9: “a wave of nausea overpowers / subject and counter-subject. Zest and love / drain out with soapy water as she scours / the crusted milk.”

    • Alliteration

      Where alliteration appears in the poem:
      • Line 3: “children chatter”
      • Line 8: “soapy,” “scours”
      • Line 9: “crusted”
      • Line 11: “mousetrap,” “mouse”
      • Line 12: “corpse”
      • Line 13: “comforts”

    • Allusion

      Where allusion appears in the poem:
      • Lines 9-10: “Once she played / for Rubinstein, who yawned.”

    • Enjambment

      Where enjambment appears in the poem:
      • Lines 1-2: “matter / to no one”
      • Lines 4-5: “A pot / boils over.”
      • Lines 5-6: “stove / too late,”
      • Lines 6-7: “overpowers / subject”
      • Lines 7-8: “Zest and love / drain”
      • Lines 8-9: “scours / the”
      • Lines 9-10: “played / for”
      • Lines 10-11: “caper / round”
      • Lines 13-14: “paper / featuring:”

    • Caesura

      Where caesura appears in the poem:
      • Line 1: “fugue, though”
      • Line 4: “fight. She”
      • Line 5: “over. As”
      • Line 6: “late, a”
      • Line 7: “counter-subject. Zest”
      • Line 9: “milk. Her,” “ache. Once”
      • Line 10: “ Rubinstein, who yawned. The”
      • Line 13: “them; and”
      • Line 14: “featuring: Tasty”

    • Consonance

      Where consonance appears in the poem:
      • Line 2: “no one now,” “not”
      • Line 3: “children chatter”
      • Line 4: “She hushes”
      • Line 5: “she rushes”
      • Line 7: “subject,” “counter-subject,” “Zest”
      • Line 8: “with soapy water,” “scours”
      • Line 9: “crusted milk,” “ache”
      • Lines 10-11: “children caper / round”
      • Line 11: “sprung mousetrap where,” “mouse”
      • Line 12: “soft corpse,” “move,” “seem”
      • Line 14: “Tasty,” “stale”

    • Parataxis

      Where parataxis appears in the poem:
      • Lines 4-5: “She hushes them. A pot / boils over.”
      • Lines 9-10: “Her veins ache. Once she played / for Rubinstein, who yawned.”

  • “Suburban Sonnet” Vocabulary

    Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

    • Fugue
    • Chatter
    • Subject
    • Counter-subject
    • Scours
    • Rubinstein
    • Caper
    • Stale
    Fugue
    • (Location in poem: Line 1: “She practises a fugue”)

      A type of musical composition in which a short melody is introduced and successively taken up and developed by interweaving melodies.

  • Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Suburban Sonnet”

    • Form

      As the title would suggest, this poem is an Italian or Petrarchan sonnet. It thus consists of an octet/octave (the first eight lines) and a sestet (the second six lines), which can further be broken down into two quatrains (four-line stanzas) and two tercets (three-line stanzas). The poem also follows the rhyme scheme and meter of a sonnet (though both feature some deviations from traditions; more on those in the relevant sections of this guide). In some ways, then, the poem is a pretty standard in its form.

      At the same time, "Suburban Sonnet" is unique in its focus and subject. Traditionally, sonnets were written to celebrate courtship, romance, chivalry, and other topics that endorsed and perpetuated traditional gender roles. Harwood challenges the traditional literary function of sonnets by re-contextualizing it in the modern world and using it in the service of feminist ideas.

      This unconventional use of the sonnet form also becomes apparent during the sestet, which traditionally resolves whatever situation or conflict is established during the octet. Rather than reach a resolution, however, the poem concludes with a message of despair and death, signaling the end of the woman's innermost dreams. Such a dark ending is fairly unusual in the sonnet tradition, making "Suburban Sonnet" (and other sonnets written by Harwood) truly one of a kind.

    • Meter

      Like most sonnets, this poem is primarily written in iambic pentameter. This means lines have five iambs, feet with alternating unstressed (a.k.a. short) and stressed (a.k.a. long) syllables. The meter is steady throughout but does contain variations and substitutions—some of which simply keep the poem from sounding overly rigid or formal, and others of which serve a thematic purpose. For example, here is the meter of lines 3-4:

      Beside her on the floor two children chatter,
      then scream and fight. She hushes them. A pot

      The first line here has 11 syllables instead of the 10 expected in iambic pentameter, and that final syllable is also unstressed. Because iambic lines end are meant to end with a strong stressed beat, this makes things feel unsteady or incomplete. Not coincidentally, the word that interrupts the poem's rhythm is "chatter"–implying that the children's idle talking is what throws the woman's steady rhythm, her music, off.

      The same thing happens with lines 1 ("matter"), 6 ("overpowers"), 8 ("scours"), 10 ("caper"), and 13 ("paper"), each of which subtly suggests a disruptive intrusion of motherhood and domesticity—cleaning the pot, the children hovering around the mouse, and so forth.

      Other moments are evocative as well. Take the fourth foot of line 9, which is a spondee (stressed-stressed):

      the crusted milk. Her veins ache. Once she played

      By adding more stressed beats to this line, the speaker essentially turns up the volume on the poem for a moment—a moment that references the woman's deep pain, no less. Her aching veins—a sign of her misery as a housewife—impede her smooth rhythm.

      "Suburban Sonnet" again breaks away from strict iambic pentameter in the last line:

      featuring: Tasty dishes from stale bread.

      This final departure from the poem's regular meter again has a jarring effect on the reader. The meter falls apart when the woman's musical aspirations become totally unraveled—tossed away like a dead mouse wrapped in paper.

    • Rhyme Scheme

      Like most sonnets, "Suburban Sonnet" has a fairly consistent rhyme scheme. The octave (the first eight lines), follows the pattern:

      ABABCDCD

      The sestet, the last six lines in the sonnet, follows the pattern:

      EFGEFG

      This rhyme scheme is distinct from traditional Italian sonnets, which typically have an octet that follows an ABBAABBA pattern. Instead, it looks more like the rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet in the octet.

      All the end rhymes are full and clear, with the exception of the fifth and seventh lines, which contain the slant rhymes of "stove" and "love." Many of the rhymes are also feminine rhymes, meaning that multiple syllables rhyme. This is the case with "matter"/"chatter," "overpowers"/"scours," and "caper"/"paper." As noted in our discussion of the poem's meter, the unstressed final beat of all these feminine rhymes makes the poem feel slightly unsteady.

      By deviating from the traditional sonnet form in certain respects, Harwood brings a modern spin to a classic form of poetry. The structure and rhyme scheme mirrors the poem's focus on contemporary social issues that have emerged with the rise of suburban life in the mid-20th century.

  • “Suburban Sonnet” Speaker

    • The speaker serves the role of an omniscient, third-person narrator, describing the woman's thoughts and feelings from an outside (yet all-knowing) perspective. The speaker's commentary appears to mirror the woman's deepest anxieties about the outcome of her musical ambitions. Emerging as a detached observer of the woman's emotional state, the speaker explores the conflict between her innermost aspirations and her current circumstances. In addition to providing the reader with an exposition of the woman's psyche, the speaker's tone becomes increasingly morbid and foreboding as the sonnet progresses. The speaker concludes the poem with a symbol of death (the mouse stuck in the trap), foreshadowing the demise of the woman's professional aspirations. This establishes the speaker's opinion of the woman's fate, leaving the poem on a bleak and wistful note.

  • “Suburban Sonnet” Setting

    • The setting is established by the poem's title, which directly references the woman's suburban household. A suburb is an outlying district of a city that is usually dedicated to private residences and neighborhoods. Historically and culturally speaking, suburbs have been associated with an upper middle-class lifestyle and a fairly privileged position in society. Suburban life is also typically associated with conformity to social traditions, especially gender norms. This poem highlights the role of suburban gender norms in generating the woman's inner conflict.

  • Literary and Historical Context of “Suburban Sonnet”

      Literary Context

      Gwen Harwood is widely regarded as one of the greatest Australian poets in history. She was active in the 1960s through the 1980s, publishing several collections of poetry that prominently featured sonnets. Harwood’s poetry frequently revolves around feminist themes of women’s oppression, especially in the context of motherhood. Music is another common motif in Harwood’s poetry. “Suburban Sonnet” is clearly no exception to this general pattern, featuring both feminist themes and musical motifs throughout. Published in 1968, “Suburban Sonnet” was released at the peak of Harwood’s career as she gained a reputation among both feminist and literary circles for her important work.

      "Suburban Sonnet" was published alongside two other sonnets, "In the Park" and "Suburban Sonnet: Boxing Day." All the sonnets appear to follow the story of the same mother of two who is struggling with the constraints that society has placed on her as a woman. While "Suburban Sonnet" stands on its own, reading it in its full context gives a broader picture of the woman's predicament. These sonnets are considered one of Harwood's greatest accomplishments, putting her on the map and establishing her reputation as an important figure in feminist poetry. In fact, Harwood’s mark on the literary landscape in Australia was so influential that one of the country’s highest poetry prizes is named after her.

      Historical Context

      As the title suggests, “Suburban Sonnet” is a product of the modern-day suburban environment that emerged in the mid-20th century. The suburbs typically consisted of residential areas established on the outskirts of urban areas, providing the middle-class an alternative to living in the inner city. Along with reinforcing socioeconomic divisions between those living in the city and those residing in the suburbs, the rise of suburban systems also strengthened traditional gender roles for men and women.

      In this traditional system, men were generally regarded as the breadwinners while women were expected to dedicate their entire lives to raising their children and maintaining the household. As the suburbs were becoming more widespread, a new wave of feminism was also proliferating in both academic and political circles. Unlike first-wave feminism, which primarily focused on securing women’s right to vote, this second wave of feminism was geared towards exploring complex social problems such as women’s access to the labor force, career opportunities, and upward mobility in society. “Suburban Sonnet” echoes these concerns through the internal struggles of its subject, the housewife who never has the opportunity to pursue goals outside her role as a mother.

  • More “Suburban Sonnet” Resources

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