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Summary Of Richard Wilbur's A Barred Owl

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Do you ever remember being scared of monsters under the bed? If so, then you will relate to the young child in “A Barred Owl.” An owl hooting in the night scares a girl, but thankfully her parents are there to comfort her. In “A Barred Owl,” author Richard Wilbur uses imagery, tone, and personification to show how powerful words can subdue any emotion. Imagery plays an important role in relaying the message of the poem. The poem opens with describing the “warping night air.” While in “her darkened room,” the girl hears the owl. These images create an eerie feeling and help the reader relate to the fear of the child. The girl’s parents then calm their daughter using soothing words. Afterwards, the girl is then able to go back to sleep without
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This diptych poem is essentially engrossed with the loss of innocence through experience. Part One of Father and Child, Barn Owl, explores the innocence of childhood and the bewilderment towards the nature of death. The line “my first shot struck” consists of monosyllables which creates an emphasis on the shock that is contained within the persona for committing such an act. Part Two of Father and Child, Nightfall, is fast forwarding to a role reversal between the father and child, the child now being the carer and nurturer of the father. “Your passionate face is grown to ancient innocence”, this line reflects the fathers attitude to his surroundings at the present time, taking in the nature and once ordinary things around him, that all become extraordinary with this last inevitable walk.

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The Northern Spotted Owl is currently classified as threatened and is currently undergoing conservation efforts in order to bring its population numbers back up. The Northern Spotted owl is the largest of the three subspecies of spotted owls. They are medium sized, dark brown owls with barred tails and white spots on their head and breast. The males are slightly larger than the females and are often confused with the barred owl. They are primarily nocturnal but still forage opportunistically during the day.

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The imagery of the first poem greatly contrasts from the overall tone. In “A Barred Owl,” Richard Wilbur describes an owl frightening a child and waking her from her slumber. Wilbur sets the scene with dark imagery: “The warping night air brought the boom/ Of an owl’s voice into her darkened

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When an individual steps out of her comfort zone, she is forced to face difficulties by transitioning through tough obstacles and challenges, a process which fundamentally changes her attitudes, perceptions and beliefs. However, the process of transition is complex, difficult and often involves others to help acclimatize an individual to a new way of seeing the world. J.C. Burke’s 2005 novel The Story of Tom Brenan and Shaun Tan’s 2001 picture book The Red Tree powerfully explore their protagonists’ respective transitions and the ways in which their lives are transformed. Thus, by reading these texts together, the audience can glean both the difficulties of transition, and its powerful effects in shaping attitudes and beliefs.

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She utilises a diptych structure which portrays the contrast of a child’s naive image of death to the more mature understanding they obtain as they transition into adulthood. This highlighted in ‘I Barn Owl’ where the use of emotive language, “I watched, afraid/ …, a lonely child who believed death clean/ and final, not this obscene”, emphasises the confronting nature of death for a child which is further accentuated through the use of enjambment which conveys the narrator’s distress. In contrast, ‘II Nightfall’, the symbolism of life as a “marvellous journey” that comes to an end when “night and day are one” reflects the narrator’s more refined and mature understanding of mortality. Furthermore the reference to the “child once quick/to mischief, grown to learn/what sorrows,… /no words, no tears can mend” reaffirms the change in the narrator’s perspective on death through the contrast of a quality associated with innocence, “mischief”, with more negative emotions associated with adulthood, “sorrows”.

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In a world where things are constantly changing, parents must work hard to protect their children from the evils of the world and sometimes in order to do that little lies must be told. The difference is what extent the adult will go to in order to protect the innocence of children and knowing when they have gone too far. Two poems that include examples of adults providing explanations to children are “A Barred Owl” by Richard Wilbur and “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins. Although both share the idea of explaining things to children, Richard Wilbur’s “A Barred Owl,” is centered around a young child that is awoken by the sounds of an owl’s voice and is then comforted by her parents telling her that there is nothing to fear. He makes a

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While the history teacher in Collins’ poem lies to protect the students’ innocence, the parents in Wilbur’s poem lie to soothe the child’s fear. For instance, in the second stanza, Wilbur shifts to explain that language can either provide inspiration for fear, or “domesticate” fear, which emphasizes the power of language. However, As Wilbur explains, although the child’s fear is temporarily alleviated by the lie, the parent’s lie does nothing to actually eliminate the reality of the situation, as the owl is still outside the child’s window hunting. In this way, Wilbur emphasizes how comforting lies do little to actually solve problems, even though they may provide short-term consolation. In this way, both Wilbur and Colins explore similar themes of dishonesty.

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Richard Wilbur's "Death of a Toad" describes a toad being caught in a lawn mower and the poet's reaction to its death. At first, the speaker seems to be indifferent to the toad's death, but as the poem progresses, he starts to mourn the toad. In "Death of a Toad" by Richard Wilbur, diction and imagery reveal the speaker's response to the death of a toad. Wilbur's use of diction helps to convey the speaker's response to the toad throughout the course of the poem. The speaker responds to the toad's death apathetically at first.

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