Barn Owl Essay

Gwen Harwoods, Father and small fry, is a two-part poem that tempers a childs naivety to her matured, grown up attitude. Barn Owl presents a doorsill in which the respondent is able to witness the initiation of Gwens transition. The transformation is achieved through with(predicate) her didactical quest for wisdom, lead by her childishness naivety and is complimented through nightfall, where we see her fully maturate state. The importance of familial relationship and p bental counselling is explored in father and child, as well as the severalise views on mortality and death.Barn Owl depicts death as a shocking and violent occurrence while the second poem, nightfall, displays that death can be accepted, describing the cyclical and transient nature of aliveness. Relationships, especially with Gwens parents, act as a catalyst for her maturation and leave behind sustaining memories as shown in umpteen of her poems. In Barn Owl, Gwen initially represents her father as being rob bed of power and an Old No-Sayer. The neologism, No-Sayer, incites a panorama within the readers mind, rendering an image of a child through the simplistic syntax, representing a childlike view of the world.The combination of the two quotes separates the child and father, showing that the child disregards her fathers authority, ultimately expressing her view of their connection. However, in progression with the poem, we realise that the father plays a major role in the guidance of Gwens childhood. This idea is represented when considering Gwens fathers presence after she had injure the beak. my father reached my side, gave me the fallen gun.The positional verb side emphasizes the truthful relationship between father and daughter, as he is providing solace and support for Gwen, in this clip of realisation, death and accountability, in contrast to the image set by old No-Sayer. The significance of Gwens parents to her maturation is again reinforced when considering the dialogue, En d what you have begun. It is an shrill command which refers to the process of her childhood development and carries with it the idea that maturation is inevitable and must occur as a part of life.Nightfall indicates similarity in terms of the significance of parental guidance. For example, when Gwen states that her father keeps a childs delight forever, in birds we notice that Gwen has a sustaining memory of an integral part of her life due to her father, the owl shot in Barn owl. A more literal example of the importance of parental guidance Gwen preaches is revealed in Gwens confession, erstwhile quick to mischief, grown to learn what sorrowsno words, no tears can mend. This reveals the effect her father has had on her.She has matured, become an adult and has become understanding of the ephemeral nature of life a key concept evident in many of Hardwoods poetry and affirms the importance of Gwens parents to her development of a child to an adult. In many of her poems, Gwen adumb rates to a certain extent, as to not fully reveal what is brewing, in order to allow the reader to consider for themselves and make judgments on the situations presented. In father and child, the foreshadowing leads to integral moments of Gwens life and communicates with the reader.Barn owl initiates with the symbolic compound word Daybreak, foreshadowing possibilities of experience and awakening. This notion of hap changes to a sense of actuality when Stanza 3 (versus 2-5) not only adds dramatic suspense to the story but prefigures the momentous event that changed the childs life, the killing of the owl and corresponding realization of death. For example, the metaphor master of life and death sets a grave tone and places tension and apprehension in the readers mind as we are evoked to contemplate what dangerous deeds will be committed.The synecdoche, punish beak and claw, represents the fact that the child can only see and focus on parts of the owl, symbolically denotes that the c hild is blind to the enormity of what she is about to do. The responder is hinted further, by this synecdoche, on what the persona is about to shoot This is a reflection of the childs naivety and allows the reader to understand the impelling force urging her to steal her fathers gun, and to take this quest for wisdom, inherent childhood arrogance. Similarly in nightfall, Gwen prefigures a monumental moment of her life, the death of her father.The title of the poem nightfall, is the binary opposite to Daybreak and therefore assembles a thought in the readers mind of the opposite of coming alive, end of time, death. Gwens understanding of the inevitability of death is highlighted when she says Now the season that seemed incredible is come. This quote in combination with the constant links to nature, in particular fruits is symbolic of the season autumn, the falling of ripe fruit and can therefore be interpreted as the end of her fathers time on earth, Gwens poem, Father and child, rep resents the cyclical nature of life through the inevitability of consequence and growth.Paternal guidance and familial relationship is seen as a key catalyst to her maturation and increasing understanding and responsibility, reverberated in many of Gwens poems. The foreshadowing of significant events assists the responder in connecting with the poem. For example in Barn Owl, we come to understand that it was Gwens child naivety that led to her stealing her fathers gun and victorious the life changing quest for wisdom.