Suburban Sonnet

"Suburban Sonnet" is a poem by Australian poet Gwen Harwood.

While caring for her children a "suburban housewife" remembers the time when she was a pianist who once played for Rubinstein.

While reviewing the poet's Poems: Volume Two collection the reviewer Geoffrey Lehmann commented that "Her poems about bluestockings and critics indicate perhaps an overconsciousness of possible critical reaction."

As an example of this analysis he quoted a line from this poem: "Once she played for Rubinstein, who yawned."

He went on to say that "Her ingenuity in avoiding obvious phrases is one of the pleasures of her work, but sometimes this makes her poetry excessively cerebral.