An Analysis Of Richard Wilbur's A Barred Owl

“Words, which can make our terrors clear/ Can also thus domesticate fear,” yet that domestication can also perpetuate naivety in the audience. What they hear is a censored story, a distortion of reality. Small fears sung in a whimsical tune of heroic couplets limit the scope of that fear and alleviate the distress of the listener. By limiting the perspective of such fears, however, the listener will never understand the portrayed fear, nor will they understand how to combat it in a healthy way. For example, the wakened child of Richard Wilbur’s “A Barred Owl” will never comprehend the grace and beauty of an owl because they were taught to suppress their fear, not confront it. The students of Billy Collins’ “The History Teacher” will never understand

the history of humanity and the importance heroic feats if they do not learn of its downfalls as well.
Heroic couplets imitate the light-hearted mood and bright tones of nursery rhymes.

Literally, Wilbur’s poem is taming a child’s fear. Stylistically, Wilbur’s poem is taming the dark imagery of the owl by forcing it into heroic couplets. The light tone is in stark contrast against the dark imagery. For instance, “the warping night air threw the owl’s thundering wail into her darkened room” conveys the same sentiments as “The warping night air having brought the boom/ Of an owl’s voice into her darkened room.” However, the phrasing of the two differs dramatically. The nursery rhyme scheme is used to hide the darker imagery which masks the fear the child feels, diminishing its importance. Fearing an owl’s hoot is deemed silly. The child is simply sent back to sleep and expected to not dream of an owl feasting on some small thing and eating it raw. Similarly, Collins’s poem limits the potential of fear by portraying violent history as silly. The teacher tells his students of the Ice Age but reimagines it as the Chilly Age with a plethora of sweaters. He tells them that the Stone Age was really a Gravel Age where driveways were really long. He frames the Spanish Inquisition as an outbreak of questions about Spain. These are cute, harmless lies meant to preserve the innocence of

children.
It is at this point that “The History Teacher” begins to veer away from the silly euphemisms like that of “A Barred Owl.” The poem, written in free verse, is read in a monotone voice.

This dry, uninterested tone drives the dark message forward; it is the effect opposite to that of heroic couplets in “A Barred Owl.” The lies the teacher tells are meant to be read as cute and harmless yet they are blunt and ineloquent, almost approaching that of a rant. The teacher, in perpetuating the misrepresentation of history, is convinced of the children’s innocence is more important than historical accuracy. However, these children are not innocent. They leave his classroom and torment the weak and smart. There is no innocence to preserve, no reason for the teacher to adamantly misrepresent history for the purpose of maintaining their virtue. Yet, he continues to tell the grossest misrepresentation of history to preserve their fragile minds and sweet demeanors. He ignores their violent and abusive behavior as he gathers his notes before walking home past flower beds and white picket

fences.
In warping reality for the perceived benefit of calming and protecting children, the adults in these poems prolong the adverse effects that manifest in the children. “A Barred Owl” is a singular instance, yet the fear the child feels, even after being told the owl was only asking a ridiculous question, is palpable. The wakened child is domesticating their fear by wrestling it into silence. This method of handling fear is unhealthy and could possibly manifest into aggression. This is certainly evident in Collins’s poem where their ignorance has manifested into aggression because they cannot sympathize with others. The adults do not care about the well-being of the children. They only care about the façade they wear either at home as in “A Barred Owl” or in the classroom as in “The History Teacher.”