The Truth Behind The Barn Owl - Keeley

The Truth Behind The Barn Owl

“Barn Owl” by Gwen Harwood, is a poem describing a child shooting his/her first animal, which happens to be an owl, and realising the burden that comes along with killing such an innocent and graceful creature.  

LITERARY TECHNIQUES:

Therefore the significance of the title is that it is pretty self explanatory and hints to the reader what the main focus is. The last word of each sentence is rhyming, with the pattern repeating as ABABCC.

Enjambment is also incorporated into the verses, with the last sentence of most verses running onto the next verse without stopping in between. There are a few metaphors popping up throughout the course of the poem, for example when the owl was being described from the child’s perspective as “A wisp-haired judge whose law would punish beak and claw.” This is a metaphor because the owl is being compared to a judge which is considered as a human occupation.

An example of a paradox that was also included in the poem is “ Master of life and death”. This is a paradox because life and death are opposites which are both included in the same sentence and logically it is quite impossible to be the master of two complete opposites.

THEME:

The overall theme of the poem is death and the burden that comes with it. The frightened and depressed tone of the poem portrays the theme in explicit detail. The depressing imagery was clearly conveyed through the sight of the innocent child, and the process of the story is quite ironic since the child at first thinks shooting innocent animals bears no baggage, however, once such sins were committed, the realisation that death is truly evil occurs. The story starts off light and happy, and transforms into sad and dark imagery.