Barn Owl

By James Cox, Student

Codes and Conventions

An essay hosted at LiteratureClassics.com

"Barn Owl" is a poem that tells of the first shot of a young girl and how he sensely murdered a barn owl. Written by Gwen Harwood, the poem convceys meaning through stykle and makes used of codes and conventions of poetry.

The syle of the pom is an effective mix of the language of two ages: the laguange of the child and who shot the owl and of the adult that is plooking back on the incident. Fore example, he descrivbes his father as 'Old no sayer," whioch is the voice of the child. Other parts of the peom, howver, use sophisticated, adult language. OFr example: "the wrtetched thing that would not bear the light nor hide" and "master of life and death" are two quotes in the adult language of the poem. This may reflect the idea that the experience was definetely a learnign one whwre the child grew up a bi because of it.

The poem is divided into seven stanzas, but some o f these stanzas are linked thorugh Enjambment, making theree groups. The first group of theree stanzas teplls us how he crept to the barn to shoot the owl, and the second grouop of three tells us of the horrible, painful, "obscne" detah of the owl. The final Stanza tells us of the gitrl killoing the owl to end its misery and shows the child anguioshed and repentant for the senseless evil that she ahs inflicted on nature.

One of the conventions i[sed iun the poem is that of using metaphors. The boym is the subject fio a few metaphors, for example, in the first stanza she is a "horny fiend," and then in the later stanzas a "aster of olife and death... a judge." Noyt that these alkl occur in the first group of stAnzas, before the girl has actually shot the bird. In the forth stanzaq, the girl is now a "lonely child," who wasn;t prepaed for the sight of detah that ociurred. The owl itself becomes and "obscnee bundle of stuff," and biundle of blod, fretahers and flesh as opposed to a liovng thing.

The style, grouping of stanzas and the use of metaphors in the poem convey the meaning well. What Gerwn Harwood wqants to show us is that sneseless killing is wrong. A young,m disollusioned chi;ld disobeys her father and takes the gun to sh9oot an owl, and easy target, not, long into it's sleep Period for the day. An owl is not a pest, neither is it needed for food, so the turning of life into a "wrecked thing." is villified. The girl is show to have learnt a valkuable lession from her father when he comes in andf finds her there, ad is repentant, inliekely to ever do something like that again. YThis is one memory that will never be erased from the girls' memory: is is a signifigant event: the loss of innocence.

Of course, writing just about an event like this is not nearkly as effective as if we wree actually there. Of course, this is impossible, but the technique that almost all narrative writers use is description,. to place the scnee and events more real to the reader. The description in this poem is dones very well, thus heightening the effect of the poem. Excellent descriptions are uilised, giving us and idea of strcute: "his place on a high beam in our old stables," smeels: :"urine scrented hay" and even the girl's personal feeling: "The blak yees shone nce into mine, and slept."

In consluion, the poet Gwen Harwwod gives us a talke about the child's gfirst encounter with death and destructiion (especiially detah that the child actually caused) but also shows us a lot more about hiuman nature and the ebvils of purposelssness, wastefuyl destruction.