Gwen Harwood Barn Owl Essay

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Poems have the ability to express thoughts into words. They convey messages and stories for the audience to interpret, and emotions for the audience to feel. Gwen Harwood, one of Australia’s most highly regarded poets, demonstrates sophistication and provokes emotions from the audience with descriptive use of imagery and inspiring messages in her poems. Harwood uses different methods to portray the themes of innocence, death and rebelling against authority in her poem Barn Owl. These ideas are clearly depicted through the use of literary techniques such as onomatopoeia, alliteration, imagery, direct speech and metaphors in the poem.

Every child tests the idea of rebellion as it’s a part of growing up. The idea of rebelling against authority …show more content…

As Harwood explains in the poem “a lonely child who believed death clean and final, not this obscene”. When the first shot strikes, her naivety is immediately replaced with guilt as she realises the implications of her plan. Her gun falls from her hands symbolically conveying the shock and guilt of her actions. After the child kills the owl, she weeps on her father’s arm, symbolising the loss of the child’s youth and innocence. This is presented in the visual representation by the images of a barn owl and a young girl crying side by side. The owl was part of the girl and symbolised her innocence. When the owl was killed, her childish innocence was taken away. She is then forced to understand and mature from the events taken place. The author uses the metaphor “owl blind” to convey the sadness of the journey to maturity and adult knowledge that has now begun for the protagonist.

Harwood’s poem Barn Owl, expertly conveys the poem with emotion and tells the story of a young girl losing her childish innocence by rebelling against her father and killing a barn owl. Using a variety of literary techniques, the poem has the ability to provide the audience a visual image of the scene. Expressed in great detail, the themes of innocence, death and rebelling against authority within the poem offer the audience another intriguing poem written by Gwen

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