A wise man once mused; '"'Everyone thinks of changing the world but no one .
'"' This man, was Count Leo Tolstoy, who went on .
to change his belief structure, values and to convert his religion from .
Russian Orthodox to Christianity. .
.
A couple of days ago I was cleaning out my now unused study - recently I .
have been finding other places to write, my bed, the bathroom, even in the .
bath, as the portability of the laptop proves very convenient - and I .
stumbled upon a book, well read, yet discarded in my 'old age'. Gwen .
Harwood"'"s collection of poems was now sitting in my hand, and after five .
minutes of staring blankly at the book I opened it and flicked through the .
pages. .
.
If I had remembered rightly her poems said much about the changing self, .
concluding that change developed and enriched the soul. It started me .
thinking about change and how many people are frightened of changing .
themselves. I reflected that a change in self usually occurs due to the .
presence of an external stimulus. Rarely does the individual initiate .
change. Reading through the poems I found some of my favourites, which .
depicted change effectively. I speculated that changing the self probably .
also requires a strong ego! .
.
In Harwood"'"s pair of poems entitled '"'Father and Child'"', she explores the .
changing relationship between a father and child; the self growing up and .
growing old. In both poems, it is the presence of death that has caused .
the self to change. .
In '"'Barn Owl'"', the child resists and finally accepts change through the .
realisation that death is final. Notes in the margin of my book, defacing .
the text, made it hard to read, but I could decipher some of my .
scribblings outlining the way the change had occurred. The child confronts .
the death of the owl as '"'master of life and death'"'; she sees the death as .