“In the Park” is a poem by Gwen Harwood that describes the experience and thoughts of a woman with three young children who encounters her former lover at a park. The poem was first published in 1961 under the pseudonym Walter Lehmann. Throughout the early years of her career, Harwood regularly published using a male pseudonym, recognizing that literary journal editors (who were predominantly male) were biased against female poets. Notably, “In the Park” was published in The Bulletin, a prominent Australian magazine the literary section of which was helmed by male editor Douglas Stewart. The very same year that she published “In the Park” under her male pseudonym, Harwood published another pair of sonnets in The Bulletin that contained a hoax—the poem acrostically spelled out “So Long Bulletin. F*** All Editors.” Harwood thus triumphantly expressed her disdain for the sexist editors in the very journal that had attempted to exclude her; her hoax was widely discussed in Australia at the time.
Harwood’s use of a pseudonym is both fitting and ironic given the content of “In the Park.” Like her hoax poem, “In the Park” is a sonnet—a traditional fourteen-line poetic form that typically celebrates or expresses love toward its subject matter. By contrast, “In the Park” depicts a young mother attempting to hide her dissatisfaction with her life while having a conversation with her former lover. The poem critiques how society, as symbolized by the figure of the male lover, forces women into domesticity and motherhood and assumes that all women enjoy such a role. At the same time, men recognize that women are subjugated in society and are unable to pursue the full range of their interests, goals, and potential, as symbolized in the poem by the man thanking God that he is not in the woman's position. In both “In the Park” and her other work, Harwood explores and exposes sexism and the ways gender constrains individuals' life choices.
