As human beings, we never stop changing. Change is an everyday occurrence in a person's life. This is due to the changing nature of the everyday world around us. Resistance to change is ineffectual. The concept of change is daunting to every individual the concept of changing self can be more. Self change results in realizations these realizations are often shocking and disturbing to the individuals involved. It is how individuals respond to the realisations, which set them apart. Harwood's poems "in the park", reflects the negative aspects associated with this inevitable occurrence of change in a persons life.The composer examines his or her aspect using language and imagery.
Harwood's "In the park" deals with change in a few ways. The persona in the poem experiences the negative change induced by the labors of motherhood. The poem looks directly at the change occurred through the everyday life of a woman. Her children and present life through her role as a mother and by the expectations placed on her by society trap the persona. Motherhood undoubtedly brings about a form of inevitable change. This change can be positive for those mothers who embrace it, yet negative for those mothers who dwell in what could have been without the added responsibilities of motherhood. .
The Persona is pitied by a past lover, "to/late to feign indifference to that casual nod" and is embarrassed by her inevitably bleak situation. She did not want to talk to her past lover because she is ashamed at how her life has changed and at what she has become. .
She places all her time and energy in her children. "She sits in the park", she has taken her children to the park, and although she is not active, her motionless image reveals her monotonous lifestyle, through the entrapment of society's expectations.
Her past lover is amazed at her present situation. "Time gold great surprises", he is superior to her. Having her lover place pity on her conveys that she was once a different person, happier, smarter and more intellectual.