Max's+Analysis

//A Barred Owl by Richard Wilbur Explication by Max Walker //

//A Barred Owl,// by Richard Wilbur, is an attempt to define how we perceive and react to fear and its simple language and shifting perspective does that job very well. It shows how a parent shielding their child from fear reveals darker things about the human psyche, yet also points out the fact that our fears are often much less than we initially think of them.

The most easily noted quality of this poem is its simplicity. Upon the first reading, it can be seen that no complex words or phrases are used, and that the whole poem is organized very neatly into two, six line stanzas with AABBCC rhyming. This is, perhaps, broken by the sixth line’s “Who cooks for you?” phrase. “Who cooks for you?” is actually part of a mnemonic for remembering the territory marking call of the Barred Owl, which goes as follows, “Who cooks for you, who cooks for you all”. Even with further readings, the poem’s format reveals no double meanings, no subterfuge occurring within it. This is likely intentional, so as to make the lines appear as a parent comforting their children.

However, the perspective of the poem does shift around somewhat between the stanzas. During the first stanza, especially as shown in the third line, the narrator talks like the reader and he are acting together, like so, “We tell the wakened child…”. The overall effect is a viewpoint similar to second person perspective. At line one of the second stanza, the narrator then begins to talk to the reader as if they were conferring about an action they just took, shifting into the third person. To quote, “Words, which can make our terrors bravely clear”. This shift in perspective further divides the poem along the break between the stanzas. The first stanza shows the narrator and reader acting together in comforting a frightened child, whereas the second is more of an analysis of their actions in the first stanza. Differentiation between the stanzas shows that the reader-narrator pair are in a position of power or authority, perhaps hinting at and reinforcing the idea of them as the parents or guardians of the frightened child.

The ideas and musings of the poem, as is common in most poetry, do not, for the most part, become apparent upon the initial scan of the writing. Immediately, the reader can likely see the themes of making a fear greater or lesser depending on our perception. In lines three through four of the first stanza, the child’s fear of the owl is decreased by making the owl seem docile, even friendly, “We tell the wakened child that all she heard/Was an odd question from a forest bird”. Later on, in the second stanza, the truth of this domestication is revealed and owl is shown as a vicious, terrible predator of the night, “Not listening for the sound of stealthy flight/Or dreaming of some small thing in a claw/Borne up to some dark branch and eaten raw”. The interpretations of these two views are many.

Initially, the reader may see the poem as showing the truth behind the illusions that we, our culture, and the human race have constructed to shield ourselves from fear; a very just assumption. The more “fluffy” version of the owl presented to the child is only told to him/her to allow him/her to sleep, even while the owl is on a very bloody hunt for prey. In support of this point, it should be noted that from the start of the more fearsome description of the owl, “Not listening for the sound of stealthy flight/Or dreaming of some small thing in a claw/Borne up to some dark branch and eaten raw”, that the owl is never mentioned to do the listed things, only implied. Therefore, the owl is given to us as a symbol of fear more so than as a bird. With that in mind, the point can be drawn that this sort of situation applies to all aspects of fear, not simply the bogeymen that haunt children at night; that humans, in response to a threat, belittle it, even if the threat is both large and real.

The counterpoint to this can be seen in a similar, but conclusively opposite interpretation. If the statement given above is pondered, the reader may find that the symbolism of the owl representing fear could be seen as Richard Wilbur poking fun at how and what we are afraid of. After all, what is an owl but a bird? It hunting is but a part of nature. The owl isn’t especially terrifying once we drop all the distorting filters we have put on it. Perhaps therein lays Richard Wilbur’s true message to us in the poem, that we should not allow fear to restrain us and blind us from truth, and that humans, as opposed to the point above, make a mountain out of a molehill when it comes to fearing something. Paradoxically, these two points prove each other. One point plays up fear, the other downplays it, just as the opposite theory would predict.

But, after all the interpretations are made, //A Barred Owl// is still a terrific poem. It’s blend of simplicity and underlying subtlety make it somewhat spooky, as a horror story might be; and at the same time very easy to understand and put into context. It very clearly provides a summation of how we deal with our fears, whether we realize it or not. It is a poem that is straightforward enough that it does not require several readings to grasp its meaning, making it a truly terrific work.

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