Gwen Harwood Barn Owl Essay

Four have already left home, one will leave soon and the other three still dwell in the house with her. She then begins to express the dangers of the world around her in a bird’s point of view. For example, she is afraid that her young will fall in a fowler’s snare, be caught in a net or by birdlime on twigs, or hurt by a hawk. In a human world a fowler’s snare might be fallings into the hands of trickery, robbery, or any other type of crime. Caught by net or birdlime might represent being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a hawk-inflicted injury might symbolize being wounded or killed by an Indian or criminal.

The parents respond to her fear by telling her that the owl is only asking “an odd question…” (4). They say that if she “rightly listened” to the owl, she would be able to hear it merely asking “who cooks for you?” (6). The stanza expresses a humorous tone with phrases such as “[It] was an odd question from a forest bird…” (4), and “Who cooks for you?” (6). On one level, the parents comfort the child by telling a lie in order to get her back to sleep, on another level, this changes the perception the daughter has of the owl. The parents do this by using the term “forest bird”, instead of “owl” to make her feel less intimidated. Through this lie she perceives the owl as a friendly forest creature, rather than a horrid monster from the night. The poem’s “AABBCC” rhyme scheme also helped further establish the tone, giving a child-like feeling to it, because it’s often used in fairy tales which is meant for children. Wilbur believes that the lie is a good way to help the child go to sleep. He justifies it in the

The fifth line says, “maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage.” This implies the father may have had a drinking problem since alcoholics tend to display violent behavior unexpectedly while under the influence. The poet extends the idea of a hot-tempered alcoholic in lines six and seven which state, “or making us nervous (6) because there never seemed to be any rage there at all (7).” This is say that the violent outbursts occurred on a regular basis and even though the father was not violent at certain moments the child knew it was the calm before the storm. The idea that this happened regularly further emphasizes that the father had an addiction to alcohol and his rage was the outcome of it; all of which, portray horrendous events a child lived through in their youth as a result of an unfit father.

His feelings of betrayal are translated to his sleep, as he dreams of his dad playing "fiddle and bow" to a "malignant" dance, the intensity of the words, reveal how serious the bond between mother and child are, and how hurtful a brush aside is to a juvenile's spirit.

Throughout the poem, the speaker uses specific details that show the conflict between the speaker’s son and his parents. In the first stanza, the speaker recalls exchanges of dialogue between the speaker and his or her son. For example, the speaker’s son exclaims, “I did the problem / and my teacher said I was right!” (Nye 3-4). The child validated his teacher’s opinion but ridiculed his parents’ opinion. This is further explained through more details in a later part of the same stanza. The mother explains how the son believed his parents were “idiots / without worksheets to back us up” (Nye 9-10). The speaker’s son had entrusted his teacher and thought of his teacher as highly intelligent, but believed that way because of foolish reasoning. In addition, the speaker lists examples of minor mistakes the parents made that caused the son to be embarrassed of them. Through distinct details, the speaker describes how the son’s “mother never remembers / what a megabyte means and his dad fainted on an airplane once / and smashed his head on the drinks cart” (Nye 10-12). By choosing to include these particular details, the poet outlines the foundation of the conflict between the son and his parents.

The reader can first determine Oliver’s appreciation for nature through her vivid and crystal clear imagery of the “great horned” through the night. With its “razor-tipped toes” and “hooked-beak,” Oliver’s descriptions of the great horned owl show her respect towards the owl, and in the same vein, nature. Similarly, “the white gleam of the [snowy owl’s] feathers” effectively indicates Oliver’s respect and positive attitude towards nature and its picturesque qualities. At the same

In “A Barred Owl,” Wilbur adopts a playful tone through rhyming: “We tell the wakened child that all she heard/ Was an odd question from a forest bird” (3, 4). The rhyme imitates the style of nursery rhymes, creating a joking tone. The playful tone avoids seriousness and weakens the horror of the owl, which contributes to the poem’s style like a nursery rhyme. Wilbur also euphemizes the owl to help create a nursery style. He does not represent the horrible creature of an owl as a carnivore with sharp claws that hunts during the night, but euphemizes it as a “forest bird” (Wilbur 4). The owl’s representation as a safe forest bird refers its figure to the enthusiastic birds with heavenly sounds in cartoons and story books, which often help the protagonist to overcome difficulties and dangers. Referring to nursery imageries of birds, the euphemism contributes to the poem’s style as a nursery rhyme. Creating a playful tone and a nursery style, Wilbur uses rhymes and euphemism to “domesticate fear” (Wilbur

In “A Barred Owl,” Wilbur constructs a singsong narrative of two stanzas with three couplets each. This arrangement provides a simple and steady rhythm that echoes the parents’ crooning to their child when she is frightened by “the boom / [o]f an owl’s voice” (1-2). A light-hearted tone is established when they “tell the wakened child that all she heard / [w]as an odd question from a forest bird” (3-4). The parents’ personification of the owl makes it less foreign and intimidating, and therefore alleviates the child’s worry. The interpretation of the hooting as a repetitive and absurd question — “Who cooks for you?” — further makes light of the situation (6). The second stanza introduces a more ominous tone by directly addressing the contrasting purposes words may serve given a speaker’s intention. While they “can make our terror bravely clear,” they “[c]an also thus domesticate a fear” (7-8). This juxtaposition is

Violence is shown from the beginning of this poem to the end. At the start, in the fourth stanza, “for I fear those guns will fire.” (Randall, 14), this is being said by a worried parent. She was worried the worse thing possible would happen to her daughter which marching to make their country free. Then, in stanza seven, “For when she heard the explosion,” (Randall, 25), this line shows the fear the mother feels for her child’s life. She thought for sure her daughter would be safe in church. Which was not the case. Lastly, in the eighth stanza, “O, here’s the shoe my baby wore, But, baby, where are you?” (Randall, 31-32), this was the strong part of this poem. At that moment, the mother knew she wasn’t going to see her daughter again. She didn’t think the reason she didn’t want her marching, would happen at the most sacred place; the church her child sang at in the choir. There are many lines in this poem that show violence, but the three most dominant lines were in stanzas four, seven, and

Children are often too juvenile and ignorant to comprehend all that is done for them. The narrator of this poem is now a grown man and is looking back on his childhood. He says that he would “[speak] indifferently to [his father], who had driven out the cold, and polished my good shoes as well.” (Hayden) After working hard all week to provide for his family, the narrator's father would wake early Sunday mornings to tend to his family. As a grown man, he sees how much effort his father put in to keep him content. Sometimes it was difficult to see this because he was overcome by fear: “...slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic anger of that house.” (Hayden). Though the narrator was intimidated by his father, he still loved and appreciated him. This father- son relationship is unique because the bond grows and develops as a strong connection throughout time, with the help of maturity. The narrator of this poem recognises the unappreciated family sacrifices that are made which only improves the bond between a boy and his

There are clues throughout the poem that express the man’s past experiences, leading him to have a hostile tone. The speaker represents his past as “parched years” that he has lived through (7-8) and represents his daughter’s potential future as

Comparing both of the poem, it carries across a similar message that the horror of mortality can allow a young individual to understand and realise the truth of the harsh reality. In 'Barn Owl,' due to the shot which she delivers, she has to 'end what [she had] begun' as she must be responsible for her actions and begin to act like an adult.Harwood uses enjambment, “obscene bundle of stuff” to create a sense of sympathy as attention is drawn to the detailed description of the owl's death. The use of the word, 'stuff' is quite child-like but at the same time, the phrase provides a vivid and evocative imagery of the ugliness of the owl's death. It also emphasises her inhuman actions that cause the owl to '[hobble] in its own blood' which are represented in the light imagery and like the owl she can 'not bear the light nor hide' as 'what [she has] begun' is the unavoidable journey from innocence to experience. As Harwood raises her 'innocent hand' it has caused her to regret it for 'sixty years'. Although Harwood did not have the real intension of winning, she made the choice of spelling it correctly. This shows the importance of her decision and that despite 60 years has gone by, guilt and regret still remain

"The Girl Who Raised Pigeons” is about a little girl named Betsy Ann Morna who is being raised by her single father. When Betsy was born her mother died from childbirth. Since Betsy had experienced such hardship when she was born her father was determined to shield her from all the tragic in the world. When she gets a little older, her father allows her to raise pigeons. But in order to shield her from tragedy her father makes sure he clears the pigeons that died before Betsy can find out. But Betsy found out. When a wild pigeon was visiting Betsy's pigeons it died but she did not want to tell her father because “He’ll think it’s the end of the world or somethin”(17). After Betsy is caught shoplifting things change between her and her father. He watches her like a hawk and must know what she is doing at all time. After Betsy grows up all her pigeons die and this changes Betsy even more. She constantly misses them and draws pictures of them on her hands and cries about them. The story ends with Betsy seeing one of her pigeons flying over the city. One part of the city that Betsy is inspired by is her pigeons. The pigeons inspired her because they allowed her to grow up and face reality that life contains tragedies. Knowing that the pigeons die allowed her to come of age and realize what happens in the world. Having her father hid everything bad for her kept her young for the time being. But once she realized what was happening it allowed her to grow up and become the women she was supposed to be.

As the poem progresses and his ill-behaviors become increasingly unacceptable, the audience can gain insight that there must be more to his actions than just immaturity. Residing in an impoverished area, requires children to develop characteristics to stand out from the rest; furthermore, adolescent’s involved in violence filled neighborhoods tend to act out to gain attention or even utilize poor manners to appeal as stronger than their other older peers. The boy begins with he “[kicked] over trash cans” and “[flicked] rocks at cats;” however, this is substantially less significant than his inadmissible profanity near the end of the poem utilized to validate his strongest provocative beliefs. He continuously commits various defiant behaviors: kicking fences, shooing pigeons, and frightening ants with a stream of piss; however, he does receive any punishments from these behaviors. The audience validates the conclusion that the boy is not highly supervised, and gets away with poor manners due to the lack of authority. Furthermore, as his grandma comes into the alley “her apron flapping in a breeze,” the audience confers she must be upset due to the urgency she simulates. Even though the audience can sense her anger, the grandma surprises the audience along with her grandson by asking, “Let me help you” and delivers a punch right between his eyes. Superficial readers can easily comprehend his immature behaviors as result from seeking attention from older peers; moreover, a closer reading proves that he is seeking attention from a significant impact in his

Using a more innocent, child-like carefree tone in the first stanza, Wilbur tells how a child is woken up, and how she is eased back to bed, demonstrating a carefree tone by making the owl seem friendly and nothing to worry about, "Was an odd question from a forest bird,/ Asking us, if rightly listening to,/ " Who cooks for you?" and "Who cooks for you?"". In the second stanza a more haunting tone is used when the child is put to sleep and the author writes, "And send a small child back to sleep at night/ Not listening for the sound of stealthy flight", when the owl is capturing its prey. Both of these tones used in this poem show how a child's problem is dealt with and provides protection to the child. The author also uses juxtaposition, comparing what the child believes is going on to what is truly happening outside.