Swag
The poem Father and Child written by Gwen Harwood involves a devilish young girl misusing her father’s gun without permission to shoot an owl. The poem starts off with the time of day “Daybreak” and “the household slept”. This tells the audience the start of the poem took place at dawn. “A horny fiend, I crept out with my father’s gun.” A horny fiend states that the poet feels somewhat evil and devilish.
The poem takes place outside the supervision from the poet’s father stating “Let him dream of a child obedient, angel-mind No-Sayer, robbed of power by sleep.” This represents the writer beginning to rebel the father and desire to act as an individual, free from his authority. In the second stanza the poet goes into the old stables to search for the owl.
The third stanza involves the poet getting ready to shoot the owl. The use of the metaphor “master of life and death, a wisp-haired judge” defines the power the child now has in the form of a gun. The fourth stanza involves the poet shooting the gun and injuring the owl. “My first shot struck. He swayed, ruined, beating his only wing,” tells us that she has not fully killed the owl but has injured him to the point it only has a single wing left.
As a result the child’s perception of death dramatically changes from “…clean and final.” In the fifth stanza the writer uses graphic imagery to depict death as seen in the line “a lonely child who believed death clean and final, not this obscene bundle of stuff that dropped, and dribbled through the loose straw tangling in bowls, and hopped blindly closer.” The poet is able to portray the death by using a long description. The phrase “I saw those eyes that did not see, mirror my cruelty” this represents the child has lost her innocence and by her rebellious actions, she realises she may never that same innocent girl ever again.
The sixth and final stanza involves the poet realising her very rebellious actions. The little child whimpers upon her father’s arm “for
The poem takes place outside the supervision from the poet’s father stating “Let him dream of a child obedient, angel-mind No-Sayer, robbed of power by sleep.” This represents the writer beginning to rebel the father and desire to act as an individual, free from his authority. In the second stanza the poet goes into the old stables to search for the owl.
The third stanza involves the poet getting ready to shoot the owl. The use of the metaphor “master of life and death, a wisp-haired judge” defines the power the child now has in the form of a gun. The fourth stanza involves the poet shooting the gun and injuring the owl. “My first shot struck. He swayed, ruined, beating his only wing,” tells us that she has not fully killed the owl but has injured him to the point it only has a single wing left.
As a result the child’s perception of death dramatically changes from “…clean and final.” In the fifth stanza the writer uses graphic imagery to depict death as seen in the line “a lonely child who believed death clean and final, not this obscene bundle of stuff that dropped, and dribbled through the loose straw tangling in bowls, and hopped blindly closer.” The poet is able to portray the death by using a long description. The phrase “I saw those eyes that did not see, mirror my cruelty” this represents the child has lost her innocence and by her rebellious actions, she realises she may never that same innocent girl ever again.
The sixth and final stanza involves the poet realising her very rebellious actions. The little child whimpers upon her father’s arm “for