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.
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,
Obviously, these are animals not to be played with, which is likely why the parent is going to considerable lengths to caution his child. With courage comes the subject of brutality. The speaker's child and the Jabberwock clash in Stanza Four, two stanzas after the speaker cautioned the kid about the Jabberwock. Here comes the beast at the boy, “Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came!”
The formulistic construction and simplistic language echo a child’s understanding of the world, enhanced by the synecdoche “beak and claw”. Harwood’s repeated references to literal and figurative blindness through “daylight riddled eyes”, are metaphoric of the child’s ignorance. The child belief of “death clean and final not this obscene” is left reeling, highlighted through alliteration and grotesque imagery “stuff that dropped and dribbled through loose straw tangling in bowels”.
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
“The Jabberwocky and The Lorax” Jabberwocky and The Lorax are two seemingly different poems, but they are very similar. They might be of two completely different topics, but they do have their similarities. Their differences may set them apart, and they may seem like they’re unrelated, but they have their similarities, believe it or not. If you would like to find out more about these two literary pieces, read on to find out. Let's start with their similarities.
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.
In the poem “The Barred Owl”, Wilbur use rhyme, personification, and dark imagery
1) My interpretation of the poem doesn’t exactly fit the ones that we discussed in class. I interpreted the poem as simple as a story about sisterhood. Because of the rhyming, it could even be similar to a nursery or children's poem. The poem began with the goblins advertising the fruit that they were selling.
The poem “Troll” by Shane Koyczan deals more with what if you were the bully, it takes you from a different perspective rather than looking at it from the bullied, Koyczan takes us to look at the bullies and how he portrays them. The author says about the bully, “You turned your hate into stones and hurled them at beauty, as if you couldn't bear to see anything other than ugly, anything Different.” (line 18) In this line the poet explains how the bullies make up the hideous in the world, making it worse with every other hideousness they put out there. Not being able to see anything but what they put out as if things were being molded their way.
Both Yeats ' poem alongside Harry and Sandy Chapin 's song highlight the negative aspects of reality and utilize the naïveté of children to reinforce it. In "The Stolen Child" 's refrain, the faeries tell the boy that "the world 's more full of weeping than" he can can comprehend. This is because he is a mere child who is mostly optimistic due to not being aware of his surroundings. The same goes for Chapin 's song Cat 's in the Cradle. During the refrain the boy asks his father when he 'll come home but the father replies "I don 't know when...".
Also, the poem uses an elevated diction with a formal tone throughout. “A powerful monster, living down in the darkness, growled in pain, impatient as day after day the music rang” (Raffel 1-3). There is an obvious tone that makes the reader read as if they are telling a scary story while still being quite
Alice in Wonderland Societal Reading Victorian society demanded a specific role of civilians with strict expectations they always adhere to. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, more commonly recognised by his pen name, Lewis Carroll, is one author who questioned these expectations through the use of satire within his text Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Satirizing the rule and conventions of Victorian society is one manner in which Carroll subverts the nature of this time period by drawing specific attention to the worst aspects and proving how ridiculous they truly are.
Each poem mentioned in the book has a slightly different meaning. In the first poem, the woodpecker is wishing, “if only, if only. . . the bark on the tree was just a little bit softer”, meaning the bark is too hard to peck through (pg. 8). The hungry and lonely wolf is crying to the moon, “if only, if only”, meaning he is whining to the moon while he sits there without a pack of wolves and hungry.
Laura 's powerful and baulked desire for the goblin 's fruit is described in a hellish way in this particular passage of the poem, allowing the reader to have a better understanding of
