Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The first-person speaker is unnamed throughout the text. She is is a young child who has decided to shoot an owl in her family's barn.
Form and Meter
sestet, ABABCC rhyme scheme
Metaphors and Similes
Metaphors:
"blessed by the sun" (Line 2)
The "blessing" is a metaphor for the speaker's positive feelings at the beginning of the poem
"a horny fiend" (Line 3)
The speaker compares herself to a "fiend," an evil spirit or demon, due to her plan to kill the owl.
"a wisp-haired judge" (Line 11)
The speaker metaphorically describes herself as a judge with the power to sentence death upon the owl.
"obscene / bundle of stuff" (Lines 19-20)
The gruesome, injured owl is metaphorically described as a bundle of stuff.
Alliteration and Assonance
"the household slept / I rose blessed by the sun." (Lines 1-2)
Repetition of "s" sounds.
"home at this hour" (Line 9)
Repetition of "h" sounds.
"My first shot struck. He swayed," (Line 19)
Repetition of "s" sounds.
"dropped, and dribbled" (Lines 21-22)
Repetition of "d" sounds.
Irony
There is situational irony in the fact that the speaker of the poem has a romanticized view of death and expects to feel powerful by killing the owl, but she is disgusted and horrified by her actions after she shoots it.
Genre
Modern poetry; coming-of-age poetry
Setting
a family farm; the barn where the owl comes to sleep during the day
Tone
suspenseful, dramatic
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is the speaker, a young child. The owl is initially presented as the antagonist, but the true antagonist as revealed in the later stanzas is the brutality of death.
Major Conflict
There are two external conflicts (conflicts between the protagonist and other characters). The first is between the protagonist and the owl; the protagonist wants to kill the owl to demonstrate her power. The second is between the protagonist and her father; the protagonist wants to demonstrate her independence from her father.
The major internal conflict (conflicts in which the protagonist struggles with their own opposing desires or beliefs) is the protagonist's attitude toward violence and death. The protagonist initially believes she is powerful because she can kill the owl, but is then horrified by death.
Climax
"My first shot struck. He swayed, / ruined, beating his only / wing, as I watched, afraid" (Lines 19-21).
The child successfully shoots the owl; although she has achieved her goal, she is instantly "afraid," and subsequently horrified, as the owl dies a painful death.
Foreshadowing
"A horny fiend" (Line 3).
The child's characterization of herself as a non-human demon foreshadows the violence she will inflict.
"out with my father's gun" (Line 4)
The introduction of the gun in Line 4 foreshadows that the child will shoot something, in this case, the owl.
Understatement
"I knew my prize" ( Line 8).
By describing the owl as a "prize," the child understates the gravity of shooting and killing a living being and treats the owl as an inanimate object. The child realizes this was an understatement in the later stanzas, when she is horrified by "what [she] had begun" (line 42).
Allusions
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
"beak and claw" (Line 18)
The beak and claw are a metonymy for the owl.
Personification
"robbed of power / by sleep" (Line 7)
Sleep is personified as a robber.
Hyperbole
N/A
Onomatopoeia
"swooped" (Line 9)
"dribble" (Line 26)
