The Barred Owl by Richard Wilbur
"The Barred Owl" by Richard Wilbur is a poem that explores the duality of nature through the lens of a child's experience. Structured in two stanzas of six lines each, the poem utilizes iambic pentameter and rhymed couplets to convey its themes. In the first stanza, a child is comforted by the sound of an owl's hooting, interpreted innocently as a humorous query, “Who cooks for you?” This portrayal presents the owl as a benign figure. In contrast, the second stanza reveals the owl's predatory nature, depicting it as a fearsome creature that captures and consumes its prey. This stark juxtaposition between the domestic and the wild encourages readers to confront the complexities of nature. The poem suggests that language serves a dual purpose: it can both soften fears and clarify the realities of the natural world. Through the imagery of the "barred" owl, Wilbur hints at the limitations of a child's understanding, while also inviting a mature reflection on the inherent dangers that exist alongside beauty in nature.
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The Barred Owl by Richard Wilbur
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1992 (collected in Mayflies: New Poems and Translations, 2000)
Type of work: Poem
The Work
The poem has two stanzas of six iambic pentameter lines each in rhymed couplets. As with much of Wilbur’s poetry, this poem observes nature in order to interpret human life. In the first stanza, a child is awakened at night by an owl’s hooting. The speaker explains to the child that the owl is just asking “Who cooks for you?” In the second stanza, however, the nighttime visitor asking about cooking becomes a fearsome predator “with some small thing in a claw/ Borne up to some dark branch and eaten raw.” This juxtaposition (cooked versus “eaten raw”) occurs in the final lines of the two stanzas and forces the reader to see opposite views of nature.
The speaker sees language as working in two ways: to “domesticate a fear” and to “make our terrors bravely clear.” The first stanza domesticates the owl, a friendly creature asking a question. In the second stanza, the owl is the predator who eats small creatures. The title “A Barred Owl” both names a particular species of owl and hints that natural terrors such as the owl have been “barred” from the child’s imagination. Yet Wilbur’s imagination, unlike the child’s, can comprehend “bravely” nature’s more frightening forms, perhaps responding to critics who have judged his work as too safe and too easy.
Bibliography
Bixler, Frances. Richard Wilbur: A Reference Guide. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1991.
Edgecombe, Rodney Stenning. A Reader’s Guide to the Poetry of Richard Wilbur. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1995.
Hougen, John B. Ecstasy Within Discipline: The Poetry of Richard Wilbur. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994.
Michelson, Bruce. Wilbur’s Poetry: Music in a Scattering Time. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1991.
Reibetang, John. “What Love Sees: Poetry and Vision in Richard Wilbur.” Modern Poetry Studies 11 (1982): 60-85.
Salinger, Wendy, ed. Richard Wilbur’s Creation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1983.
Stitt, Peter. The World’s Hieroglyphic Beauty: Five American Poets. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1985.