Barn Owl Essay Questions

How does Harwood create tension and suspense in the poem?

A mood of tension and suspense saturates the first three stanzas. Harwood first creates this tone by creating a dichotomy between the speaker and her family. The “household slept” in line 1, yet the speaker “rose” in line 2, creating a contrast between them. The use of the word “crept” builds on this tension by subtly indicating that the speaker is aware of the illicit nature of her actions and knows that she must keep quiet. Most prominently, Harwood introduces the key motif of the gun in line 4. The gun invokes the literary principle of “Chekhov’s gun,” which holds that every element introduced in a story must serve a purpose. As the classic example, if a gun is introduced in a dramatic work, the gun should go off. Accordingly, the reader can assume that when the speaker’s “father’s gun” is introduced, a violent moment is impending in the narrative. A third tension-building technique appears in line 14, when the speaker states that she stood “holding [her] breath.” This description gives the reader insight into the speaker’s state of mind behind the bravado of her tone—she is full of anticipation at the dramatic events about to occur. Just like the speaker, the reader metaphorically holds their breath and takes a pause in the narrative before the climactic line 19, which simply states “My first shot struck.”

How do caesuras function in the poem?

Caesuras—rhythmic pauses in the middle of poetic lines— are a notable literary feature of “Barn Owl” that serve to emphasize key points in the child’s rebellion. For example, line 1 opens with a caesura: “Daybreak: the household slept.” The disjunction between “daybreak” and “the household slept” immediately creates an unsettled tone in the poem, as the speaker reveals sparse details about the setting. It also introduces and emphasizes the symbol of “daylight,” which stands as a single word before the colon. Additionally, the caesura creates a symbolic divide between the speaker, who is observing the daylight, and her family, who are still sleeping. At other points in the poem, caesuras create a dramatic pause that builds tension around the narrator’s key actions. When the speaker shoots the owl, she describes it straightforwardly, then uses a caesura to pause before describing the aftermath of her action: “My first shot struck. He swayed” (line 19). Similarly, when the speaker is told to shoot the owl again, Harwood uses a caesura to create a dramatic pause after the bullet is fired: “I fired. The blank eyes shone” (line 37). A third use of caesura occurs in line 28 and creates irony within the line: the speaker moves “blindly closer. I saw.” The contrast between the speaker moving “blindly” and actually seeing the owl builds upon the recurring symbols of sight and blindness.

How does Harwood portray the relationship between the speaker and her father?

The relationship is complicated throughout the poem. At first, the speaker is dismissive of her father. It is implied that the speaker perceives her father as strict, since she describes him as an “old nay-sayer” (line 7). Illustrating the theme of rebellion, the speaker inverts the typical role of a father and child in the initial stanzas. She says “let him sleep” in reference to her father; yet it is more typical for a parent to decide that they will let their child sleep. More broadly, the speaker’s use of the gun while her father sleeps puts the speaker into an ironically adult-like role while the father is powerless and sleeping like an innocent child. At the same time, the father’s gun is the speaker’s catalyst to move toward to adulthood. Thus, the father not only symbolizes authority as the speaker’s parental figure, but represents what the speaker wishes to become: someone with the ability to wield power, a “judge” or a “master,” as the speaker states. In the latter stanzas, the father regains his role as a traditional parental figure who both punishes and comforts the speaker. While the speaker is fixated on the injured owl, her father materializes by her side, illustrating how the speaker must now seek protection after grappling with the consequences of her actions. Her father commands her to shoot the owl and put it out of its misery, thus taking an active role in the speaker’s situation, contrasting with her earlier passivity. Finally, the speaker leans her head upon her father’s arm as she weeps and mourns the death of the owl. This physical image of the speaker leaning on the father symbolically illustrates the father’s supportive role for the speaker as a source of comfort while she copes with this newfound trauma.