Similarities Between A Barred Owl And The History Teacher

The only similarity seen between poems “A Barred Owl”, by Richard Wilbur, and “The History Teacher”, by Billy Collins, is the subject of adults allocating explanations to children for the purpose of maintaining their innocence. Both poets approach this subject in very distinct ways; although both Wilbur and Collins depend on diction to convey their message, Wilbur utilizes his rhyme scheme, creating an almost fanciful tone, whereas Collins more heavily relies on irony in order to manifest his satirical tone.
Wilbur’s simple rhyme scheme adds to the whole piece seeming more innocent and childlike. For instance, Wilbur writes “We tell the awakened child that all she heard / Was an odd question from a forest bird”. His rhyme scheme makes the poem seem more like a bedtime story, or a children’s book, which perfectly explains the theme of the poem,

In Wilbur’s poem, the presence of pure intent and innocence was there, no doubt. However, when analyzing Collins’, it’s obvious that his objective was not quite to protect innocence of children, because the history teacher did not withhold information to protect them from anything. Collins first stanza captures the satire present when he introduces the notion that the teacher is only “trying to protect the students’ innocence.” Collins writes “he told them the Ice Age was really just / the Chilly Age, a period of a million years / when everyone had to wear sweaters.”. This is only one of the five ways that the history teacher deceives the children by emitting false information to them. The irony lies in the fact that his purpose as an educator is to relay only accurate historical information, with the hopes that children retain the information; in spite of that, the history teacher does the inverse. He is releasing misleading information and at the same time, exploiting the children because they are only becoming more ignorant by his