the majority of her poems are written in tetrameter or trimeter as she saw iambic pentameter as monotonous.

She began writing poetry in 1950. In this time, Australia was predominantly white and middle class

The patriarchy of the society within the context of which poet Gwen Harwood constructed her poetry, is observed, sometimes criticized and often challenged in the collection of poems found in the text 'Gwen Harwood, Selected Poems'. The representation of the images of men, women and gender differences to which a society consciously or unconsciously subscribes are captured through her writings.