‘Barn Owl’ is a narrative poem written by Gwen Harwood that describes the feelings and emotions a young girl’s experiences while making risky ‘grown up’ decisions. The poem portrays her false layer of maturity slowly peeling away to reveal her innocence as the young girl realises that what she has done was against the will of both the owl and her father and that she now must cope with the punishment of both. Gwen uses multiple poetic devices and uses a narrative writing style to portray the seriousness of the situation and the eventual uncovering of her innocent mind. The poem describes the feeling of life and death and how age and maturity affect the way we deal with it. The poem tells the story of a small child who is transformed from ‘innocent’ …show more content…
In the poem the child talks about her father dreaming of "a child obedient, angel-mind, old no-sayer, robbed of power by sleep”. This explains that the child is upset that she is not deemed old enough or mature enough to hunt or use a fire-arm (a symbol of power and social development) with her father and wants to show him she is not an obedient angel and so she has to prove that she is capable of being mature by showing her independence and strength. The young girl uses a rebellious tone in the last lines of the first stanza and explains that the man has no power over her doings when he is asleep, so she has to slaughter the owl out of sight and away from her dads’ …show more content…
The use of very simple yet powerful language to describe the owl as, "This obscene bundle of stuff," emphasizes the child's inability to understand her actions. This language used in conjunction with the alliteration of “dropped and dribbled” adds the impact of the scene of the barn owl dying. “Tangling in bowels, and hopped blindly closer” describes the nocturnal animal’s struggle in it’s own guts as well as the the light beaming in through the open barn doors as its eyes adjust to the piercing morning sun.

In the 7th stanza, the child employs the metaphor 'owl blind' to convey the bird’s death and the death of her childhood, as her adolescence begins to sprout. She has used descriptive language to make the reader gain an emotional connection with the suffering animal and develop unique backstories to the poem. Why did she want to kill the owl? What did the owl do? The owl is seen as an innocent animal, which greatly increases the feelings towards the girls’ actions, seeming almost coward-like. Implying that the bird is mortified by its soon end, the little girl suddenly begins to question herself and becomes upset. When she writes “I saw those eyes that did not see mirror my cruelty” is when she starts to become remorseful, feeling sorry, regretting her trigger happiness and again, losing her