In The Park

“In the Park” is a sonnet with three stanzas. The rhyme scheme of the poem combines two types of sonnets: Shakespearean and Petrarchan. The first two stanzas follow the same pattern, while the third stanza changes. In the first two four-line stanzas, or quatrains, the rhyme scheme creates the pattern ABBA—the first and last lines rhyme, and the middle two lines rhyme. The third stanza has six lines that feature the rhyme scheme EFGEFG, rhyming lines nine and 12, ten and 13, and 11 and 14. All of the rhymes are precise.

Like all sonnets, Harwood’s poem has 14 lines and loosely features iambic pentameter, which is a pattern of unstressed/stressed syllables five times per line. Many of the lines throughout the poem end the thought and have periods. However, there are moments of enjambment, as the thoughts continue from one line to another. The most conspicuous example is from Line 4 to Line 5, moving from the first to the second stanza: “too late / to feign indifference” (Lines 4-5).

This consistency of form and meter establishes the theme of the poem: The woman is trapped in her maternal duties and cannot escape them.