Gwen Harwood's distinct themes on gender construction in society and identity can be seen in her two poems, "The Carnival of Venice" (1969-1974) and "Long after Heine" (1988). She plays with the idea of role swapping in "The Carnival of Venice" and the conformity required by western society. "Long after Heine," explores the lack of progress in attitudes towards women. Harwood also addresses the idea of personal identity (that is a reflection of the society's own construction of a particular group, in this case, women) and how that was affected during her era. Written after the feminist movement of the sixties, both poems suggest that here has been little progress and development in the construction of women and gender roles as well as loss of identity. The typography of the poems, structure and figurative language are techniques employed by Harwood in order to convey this meaning. .
The use of typography in "Long after Heine" reflects Harwood's opinion of how society constructs and restrains women. Personal identity is how one person would define themselves and it is often reflected on how society would define them. The persona in the poem finds that she lacks one because she has been stereotyped as a "mother." Harwood believes that in becoming a mother, you often "lose all singularity ." In the first and last stanza, where the persona's environment is described, the lines depict tangible objects, which represents how materialistic and therefore how shallow her life is. The lack of identity therefore, is seen by the lack of the intangible. Every indented line is describing something intangible and transient where as the unindented lines describe something tangible. .
"A kingfisher's wet feathers.
Catching the setting sun" .
This occurs when she fantasizes about her "demon lover, Richard Chamberlain," who is able to show her the intangible and the transient. The persona's want/wish of a lover that can show her the intangible or something that is transient in its nature represents her yearning for an identity.
