Barn Owl

1. Barn Owl
2. “Barn Owl is a conversational poem in style ballad
3. Gwen Harwood
4. Gwen Harwood Poems: Volume Two (1968)
5.
“Barn Owl” tells the story of a child who leaves bed at sunrise and shoots a Barn Owl that lives in the barn. The Barn Owl comes home to the barn every morning to sleep. The child expected the owl to die immediately he shot it but it didn’t; instead it was badly hurt and the poem describes how it fell from the beam and was tangled in its own innards. The child’s father came to the barn when he heard the shot and told the child to finish what he started and put the owl out of its misery.. Harwood writes “Barn Owl” in Iambic Pentaeter. This is a poetic rhythm ABABCC. This use of rhyme creates a tempo, when you read it. The rhyming endings of the lines create suspense for the readers as the poem keeps adding onto itself. An example is the first line of the first stanza ends with “slept” and the third line of the first stanza ends with “crept”. This play on sounds built tension for the reader and gives the poem a narrative style. The poem ends with the same rhyming words: “slept” and “wept.” Through the use of repetition and Iambic Pentameter Gwen Harwood is able to reveal the change in which the character has been through from beginning to end of the text. In the poem the father is used as a symbol of experience, he transforms the child’s wrongdoing into a life lesson. We see this when the father says “end what you have begun” – this direct speech and use of imperative language highlights the fathers authority, the father is used as the character with experience who can point the child in the right direction. As readers this may expose past moments, but through Barn Owl Gwen Harwood is able show that even through something as horrific and ugly as death, you must accept the inevitable change and to be able to grow move on.
6.
The Barn owl poem resonates with Othello with themes of the intent and deceitfulness of Iago and the ugliness of death, in the case of the poem, the persona plots like a “horny fiend” to take out the barn owl. The child goes out at sunrise with the intent of killing the owl: “I knew my prize who swooped home at this hour” similarly Iago comes to the realisation in Othello act 5 scene 1 that Cassio must die or else his deceitfulness may be discovered: “May unfold me to him—there stand I in much peril. No, he must die.” The ugliness of death is also apparent in both texts, in the Barn Owl, Harwood writes: “this obscene bundle of stuff that dropped, and dribbled through the loose straw tangling in bowels”. This use of low modality language in “stuff” combines with the dolorous alliteration of “d” and the melancholic assonance, create a feeling of rough and uncarefullness for the reader. The technique of dolorous alliteration, is used to emphasise a dripping and dragging sound, the eerie sound that is usually followed by death. Likewise in Othello: after the murder of Desdemona and the fall of Othello Lodovico and Gratino describe the situation as “oh, bloody period!” and “all that is spoke is marred” or “this did I fear” and “this heavy act with heavy heart relate” Shakespeare uses assonance as well to describe the death as a heavy dragging sort of affair. Shakespeare also describes his death scene as bloody!
7.
Through reading through In “Barn Owl”, we gain a greater understanding of the theme of change, we can see that change not always results in positive influences: however, change is necessary for growth to occur there are evident changes in the individual's perspective and attitudes towards situations, surroundings and, therefore there is a transformations in the persona, which is brought on by the disturbance of the Barn Owl. The aspect of "changing self" is covered in “Barn Owl” through the process in which, the child's innocent mind, like a blank page, is tainted and marked by the suffering of the barn owl. 'Barn Owl' is an intriguing text. The extract is handled with great care and Gwen Harwood uses wonderful descriptive language, as she describes the dense atmosphere created by the scenario presented. The Poem starts off with a young child waking up in the morning and exiting the house with a gun, hoping to shoot down a barn owl. However he feels the consequences of his actions after he shoots the barn owl down. As the text progresses, the setting is created with immense descriptive detail. The setting is presented in an old stable filled with straw and suspense. Vivid imagery is not visible within the text as everything is explained with great precision. This creates a heavy atmosphere of suspense and dismay. As going through the text we pick up a strong, personal narrative tone, almost as if you're reading it like a secret confession." I rose, blessed by the sun. / A horny fiend, I crept/ out with my father's gun. /Let him dream of a child/ obedient, angel-mind-".
We see this growth of the child throughout the poem. At the beginning the child sets off not fully aware of the effect that will happen once the bullet is fired, the owl is merely a “prize” and death is “clean and final”. The messy death of the Owl, changes the Childs perspective on the matter. As the child looks upon the owl it sees a “mirror of my cruelty”. The owl has affected the child but the father comes to the child when it is in need and offers experience and knowledge to “end what you have begun”. Finish off the owl and move on, although this change will not positively change the child, it’s important that it accepts that change for growth. This text has been successful in offering greater insight about change, including the idea that change is necessary for growth to occur. To grow as a person, to take on greater maturity and responsibility, we do need to change somewhat to suit the outcomes we set for ourselves.