Owl

By James Cox, Student

Technques

An essay hosted at LiteratureClassics.com

Dorothy Hewett's peom "Owl" uses many technioques of, alnguage and wqetiings wqithin it's stanzas. AShe uses these techniques with ski=ll, so that agreat impact on the reader is made.

The first Stanza uses many techniques inside its lines. The stanza tells us of a journey thriough tingle forest at night, when suddenly an owl lands omn the bonnet of their car. Looking astn the stanza,m you can see that it is written in free verse. There is no structuree, and little, if any, Rhyme. (Only two rhymes are present, are not exact rhymes, and may be just a conincedence.) This emulates the thoughts running through the narrators mind at the time, much like free speech. The poet uses many techniques tio conveyy the sendse of beinhg there. The miost used technique is that of description. They drive to the forest in "a splatter of rain," the onatopoeia used to convey the soundof fat, heavy, raindrops falling on the windscreen of the car. A good use of description is utilised inbm the lones "the white track/sloped towards a sky/scudded with cloud." The very desctriptive language allows us to picture with our minds eactly ewjhat the narrator saw, and helops usto feel as if we were in the car. Then, the poet uses exaggeration to convey a point. As they are driving along, an owl lands on their windscreen, and the narrator says "A giant owl." To actually make the owl seem large, she sAys the words "flapped in our faces." This gives the sense on owl being big becoause the owl was a fott or morre away, yet it was still 'in their faces.'

The second stanza, the shortest in the poem at seven miniscule lines, also uses the technique of description, but it actually uses structuer even more in its tiney form. Two short lines are utilised to make a point by contrasting with the actuale content of those lines. "for a long time/it stayed there." This also gives us ther sense that nothing ahppend but standing still and watching by both parties. The next use of strucure uses long lines to compare with the content of those lkines. "the boughs overreaching... then speading its wings." Thesze lines are very long when the other lines in the stanza have two, three or four words. Thism causes the lines to stick out, and makes them fit with what ius actually hapopening in thosem lines. The examp[le of description in this stanza is the line "under conver of darkness." Yhis tells us that the night was dark: even though the headliughts were on they could nopt see him fly away.

Other than the differnece in the techniques used in them,. two two stanzas are pertty much alike. The use of Enjambment liones the stanzas, so thsat they form one long sentence. The stanzas joined that way seem to follow a stream of consiousness approach, the narrator quikcly junps from one subject to another, as fast the hiuman mind does. That fits in with the form oof the poem: the poet recounting an evemnt from memory.

The second and third stanzas are separated by a full stop, finishing the first section of the poem. It is no longer the asamne night, the poet says "Later I saw him." This fits in iwht the stream of consiousness approach: one recount ends, full stop, next recount begins. This next stanza contains more meaning in iut thatn the first two: a literal reading may be the wrong one on this occasion, it is ahrd to tell. The way the poet describes it, it may be the same owl, blind in the daylight, tanbgled in an old, discarded pair of jeans, or it may be a person, who just looks like an owl, but his nose becomes a besak, his "feathered legs hidden in jeans." Due to the ambiquity of this stanza, it is hard to anylyse.

The technique of description is again used i this stanza, wioth examples such as "the one bleak street/of the town>" and "beak blue with cold/one eye blazing." The stucture of the stanza would allow it to be lyrical, if ryhme was utuilised, mini-stanzas of four lines each could be sepearate verses. Some alliteration is also used in the body parts, "beak blue": and "eye blazing," bringing attention to the state of thew owl/person.

In conclusion, the first ands second sstanza show great skill in their use of techniqes, allowing thr reader to actrually 'be there." Due to the ambiguity and slightly wierd third stanza, however, the reader is left off with a sense of wonder at what has actually occured.