In the Park Essay Questions

Compare and contrast "In the Park" with the traditional sonnet form.

The sonnet is a poetic form that has been popular since the sixteenth century. “In the Park” shares many features with the traditional, historically established sonnet. It follows the fourteen-line structure of the sonnet and contains a regular rhyme scheme (ABBA, ABBA, ABCABC). It also focuses on a single theme or thought, which is characteristic of the traditional sonnet. In this case, “In the Park” focuses on the theme of the isolation of motherhood.

Traditionally, however, a sonnet is a romantic poem that celebrates its subject matter. For example, a traditional sonnet may have celebrated the beauty of a day in the park or described the joys of motherhood. “In The Park” inverts this traditional subject matter by critiquing rather than celebrating the confinement of women in society to roles as mothers and in the domestic sphere. The poem also does not follow the rhyme scheme of a traditional Petrarchan sonnet (ABBA ABBA CDECDE or ABBA ABBA CDCDCD) or the Shakespearean sonnet (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG). Many modern sonnets utilize stanza divisions or rhyme schemes that differ from these traditional forms.

Can the poem be characterized as more vague or more detailed? What was the author’s intention behind the detail or lack of detail in the poem?

Harwood gives us minimal information about the narrator in the opening lines—“She sits in the park. Her clothes are out of date” (Line 1)—and little other information is revealed beyond the details given in the opening lines. The woman is unnamed throughout the poem and is accordingly introduced only with the pronoun “she,” as “[s]he sits in the park.” Her lover is identified only as “[s]omeone she loved once” and as having a “neat hand.” These bare characterizations create a stark contrast between the two figures—the woman is unfashionable while the man is neat and put-together. The small details point to the greater distinctions between their life positions. Similarly, there are no details given about the park itself, beyond the gloomy “dirt” and “flickering lights.” The reader does not know what the park looks like, what the weather is like, or whether the woman is sitting on a bench or chair.

This lack of context is deliberate: Harwood carefully chooses the information that is given in the poem, selecting only details that will give the reader insight into the woman’s role as a mother and her relationship with her past lover. By keeping the poem vague, Harwood evokes the widespread nature of women’s dissatisfaction with motherhood and gender roles, suggesting that it is not uncommon for women to struggle with these feelings, despite the expectation that women enjoy motherhood. The “she” in the poem could refer to many women in various life situations, all of whom face similar challenges grappling with the demands of motherhood, their identity, and the course of their lives.