"A Barred Owl"
By Richard Wilbur
The warping night air having brought the boom
Of an owl’s voice into her darkened room,
We tell the wakened child that all she heard
Was an odd question from a forest bird,
Asking of us, if rightly listened to,
“Who cooks for you?” and then “Who cooks for you?”
Words, which can make our terrors bravely clear,
Can also thus domesticate a fear,
And send a small child back to sleep at night
Not listening for the sound of stealthy flight
Or dreaming of some small thing in a claw
Borne up to some dark branch and eaten raw.
Richard Wilbur, "A Barred Owl" from Mayflies: New Poems and Translations. Copyright © 2000 by Richard Wilbur.
"The History Teacher"
By Billy Collins
Trying to protect his student’s innocence
he told them the Ice Age was really just
the Chilly Age, a period of a million years
when everyone had to wear sweaters.
And the Stone Age became the Gravel Age,
named after the long driveways of the time.
The Spanish Inquisition was nothing more
than an outbreak of questions such as
“How far is it from here to Madrid?”
“What do you call the matador’s hat?”
than an outbreak of questions such as
“How far is it from here to Madrid?”
“What do you call the matador’s hat?”
The War of the Roses took place in a garden,
and the Enola Gay dropped one tiny atom
and the Enola Gay dropped one tiny atom
on Japan.
The children would leave his classroom
for the playground and torment the weak
and the smart,
mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses,
while he gathered his notes and walked home
past flower beds and white picket fences,
wondering if they would believe that soldiers
in the Boer War told long, rambling stories
designed to make the enemy nod off.
“The History Teacher” from Questions About Angels Copyright ©1991 by Billy Collins
The children would leave his classroom
for the playground and torment the weak
and the smart,
mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses,
while he gathered his notes and walked home
past flower beds and white picket fences,
wondering if they would believe that soldiers
in the Boer War told long, rambling stories
designed to make the enemy nod off.
“The History Teacher” from Questions About Angels Copyright ©1991 by Billy Collins
Hanna Saad
ReplyDeleteMy gut reaction to a Barred Owl was similar to when I was a kid. the first stanza was like how my parents explained the seagulls takes food from u if you don't bother or tempt it. But in all reality they steal form you no matter what. how he tells us the story is like a parent explaining a sound to domesticate that sound. he talks about how the owl is an bird of prey and of evil. "some small thing in a claw, Borne up to some dark branch and eaten raw."
the history messed my gut up since i knew what really happened what the real problems were. the author talked like the teacher was hiding them from the truth and the disgusting that happened before. he talks and uses metaphors in a way of simplifying the history that is not that good.
the elements are similar but not the same. one is domesticating fear one is simplifying history to a large extent. but both artist are making the message to get over fear explain what they are saying or what happened.
Jillian Boyer
ReplyDeleteThe first poem, “A Barred Owl”, is a rather cute poem. It captures a child’s innocence and ignorance. It also has a nice image that is described with perfect diction.
In the second poem it seems the narrator is trying to have the same effect, and with the same intent, but it doesn’t really work. As a history teacher, you have a duty to teach the truth even if it can be a little shocking for the students. Also, the topics he is teaching leads to believe that these aren't just elementary school kids, and so I’m sure they could handle it. I think this poem is a little more deceitful than the first one which is a more innocent white lie to, “Domesticate a fear” of a small child.
Suhani Karki
ReplyDeleteMy first reaction to "A Barred Owl" by Richard Wilbur was that this play was very ironic since I think that this is what parents tell most kids. In this poem, there is personification in this poem because they are making animal have human characteristics. The mood of this poem is a bit gloomy but disguised as humorous since the parents try to reassure the child after they hear a scary noise. There is no repetition in this poem except for, “Who cooks for you, who cooks for you.” There is also a pattern of this poem there are six lines in each paragraph, and there is a turning point after the first six lines.
My first reaction to “The History Teacher by Billy Collins was that I was a bit unhappy. An educator should teach children the truth of something whether it’s frightening or shocking to the children. The mood of this poem is humorous because the children don’t know about the world and it makes you laugh thinking about them. There are some allusions in this text since the author is referring to an event outside the text. This poem has different lines sectioned off to create a statement to the reader.
Both of these poems are talking about the innocence of a child and how parents (or in the second poem: Educators) seem to hide things from children so that they won’t get frightened. The overall story of both of these poems are very similar, but there are different in character, a history teacher, and a parent. The two rhyme schemes of these poems are different. In “A Barred Owl” it has an aa, bb, cc pattern, in “The History Teacher” it does not have a particular structure and seems to flow smoothly.
Shruthi Saravanan
ReplyDeleteMy first reaction for both pieces was how I was able to relate to them and understand them quite clearly after reading them both only once. The first one, “A Barred Owl” by Richard Wilbur talks about how a child heard the sound of an owl at might when they were trying to fall asleep and got scared. So the parents came to his room so he won’t be frightened and they said a believable lie to their child so he could peacefully fall asleep with being bothered by that noise. As a kid, I was terrified of the dark like many other kids with all the stories of there being monsters under your bed or in the closet. So just like any other parent my mom and dad assured me that there wasn’t going to be anything there so I won’t be afraid of this. Just like that, I bet they’ve said those type of things to me for other things I’ve brought up to them and lied to me so I won’t freak out. For the second part of the of the poem, it talked how powerful words can be and how people use them to make the biggest lies. How it’s the reason why kids are able to fall asleep while peacefully listening to the sounds of owls ripping up live mice with their sharp and bloody beaks. The second poem, “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins, is about the format of which history teachers tell students what happened in the past. I feel like this is an elementary school history teacher because I remember then hearing about stuff that happened in the past in things such as war which sounded bad to me then but not too much because the amount of struggle or pain the people went through then didn’t seem that bad to me. Though when we returned to these topics in middle school and now in high school the teachers though me what really happened in full detail making me realize how terrible some situations were. My guess though to why they really did that to the younger students was so that they would have the surrounding knowledge of what happened but not too much in detailed that they might become horrified and shaken up. Both poems are split into at least two stanzas and the way the writer organized it was that in every stanza it was about the same topic but another view or situation that was connected with the topics. In the first poem, I also realized there was a rhyme scheme (a,a,b,b,c,c,d,d,e,e,f,f), though I didn’t notice any of that in the second poem. But in the second piece, there were a ton of imagery which was part of the reason why I understood it so quickly when I first read it.
Yasmiin Ali
ReplyDeleteMy reaction to “A Barred Owl” By Richard Wilbur was that this poem really shows how adults try to hide the world for kids and what they're afraid the children might see. The mood of this poem is a bit sad but not shown a lot because of the parent's way of reassuring their kid that everything is okay. The author uses personification in this poem; making the owl have human characteristics. You can tell that the author wants the readers to know that everything you were told as a kid could have been a lie to protect you from the truth. My reaction to “The History Teacher” By Billy Collins was weird because I didn't quite understand why the teacher was lying to the kids when its important for them to know the truth about history. The mood of this poem was humorous because I imagine the kids coming home talking about what they learned to their parent/s and It is completely wrong. The author used allusions in the poem when talking about the different past events. Both poems, “A Barred Owl” and “The History Teacher”, are talking about how adults like to lie to children to save them from the real world. However, in “A Barred Owl” the parents lied to their child so they can go back to sleep peacefully. In “The History Teacher”, the history teacher spreads lies to the kid that won't help the kids excel in the future. In the first poem, I realized there was a rhyme scheme (a, a,b,b,c,c,d,d,e,e,f,f), although I didn’t notice any of that in the second poem.
Celia Hoffman
ReplyDeleteMy first gut reaction to “A Barred Owl,” was that the poem was mainly about saving a child innocence in the right way, unlike “The History Teacher”. I thought that the child in the first poem seemed to young to know the truth about owls and how they hunt, but in the second poem, the children seemed old enough to learn the truth about those historic events. Even though both adults were “protecting” the children, I thought it was the history teachers obligation to his students to teach them the truth. The theme of these two poems is protecting a child's innocence. The point of view of “A Barred Owl,” is the parents of the young girl, it is first person. The point of view of “The History Teacher,” is omniscient. There is a lot of allusion in “The History Teacher,” with the mentioning of the Ice Age, the Stone Age, the Spanish Inquisition, the War of Roses, and the Enola Gay. There is rhyme in “A Barred Owl,” (a,a,b,b,c,c,d,d,e,e,f,f). Both of these poems have ambiguity, about protecting innocence and if it is okay to lie to children to save them from intimidating information. I think these to two poems are very similar and they both can cause debates on what information is worth to lie about to a child. I think in the first poem, the girl seemed to young to now about the gruesome hunting of a owl, but the students needed to be taught the truth in the second poem. The students are there to be taught history, which bases is the truth, from their teacher. The young girl should have a few more years before learning about nature’s scarier parts.
Dylan Brenner
ReplyDeleteMy first reaction to “A Barred Owl” was that the parents in the poem are lying to the kids about the sounds that they are hearing from the owls, so they could fall asleep and be less nervous or frightened. When I was younger I used to be afraid of the dark, but not really afraid of the noises I heard. There were some poetic elements in the poem, one being personification. The author gives the owl human traits. My first reaction to the other poem “The History Teacher” was similar to the first poem, but easier to understand because of its imagery. This one didn’t make as much sense to me as the first one because the teacher is lying to their students about events. School is place to be educated and not to learn false information. As I said before I can understand this one because of the imagery. Both of the poems are similar in the way that both people are lying to their kids or students, so they won’t know the truth and be scared of the real world.
Griffin Littlewood
ReplyDeleteIn a Barred Owl, I thought the owl was mocking him but then I also felt like there was a hidden message as if the child was missing something. The Owl was somewhat of a messenger. In the History Teacher, I felt as if the teacher was a soldier because of the end where he was thinking if children actually cared about what had happened to the soldiers during battle. It just seemed as if that was a message within this poem trying to be shown but you don't realize until the very end. It also seemed as if he was trying to keep them away from the truth of all these stories.
Michael DiCenzo
ReplyDeleteMy first reaction to A Barred Owl was that the parents in the poem are lying to the kids about the sounds that they are hearing from the owls, so he could fall asleep and be less nervous or frightened. When I was younger I would hear weird noises and freak out. There were some poetic elements in the poem the first one being personification. The author gives the owl human traits like when he talks like a human “Who cooks for you?”. My first reaction to the other poem The History Teacher was similar to the first poem but easier to understand because of its imagery. I think this poem didn't much sense to me as the first one because the teacher is lying to their students about events. School is a place to be educated and not to learn nonfactual information. Both of the poems are similar in the way that both people are lying to their kids or students, so they won’t know the truth and be scared of the real world.
Yasmiin Ali
DeleteI think the history teacher was lying to the children in order to block them from the real world. Then later the teacher realizes that the kids are not as innocent anymore.
jacob moore
ReplyDeleteMy first Gut reaction to the poem "A Barred Owl" was that I thought it explained how to keep a child not afraid of certain things in the real world by telling a white lie. I thought the poem was actually quite clever because if you really think about it it's not that hard to calm a child down who doesn't have much knowledge of the world. My first gut reaction of the poem "The History Teacher" was that the teacher was giving misinformation to all of his students. I found this poem to almost anger me a little bit because the teacher wasn't thinking about the fact that kids will believe his wrong information.
In the two poems "A Barred Owl" and "The History Teacher" there are some similarities and differences. The biggest similarity in these two poems is that they are both about telling white lies to the youth. The difference in the two poems is that in "A Barred Owl" it's about a parent telling a harmless white lie to their child so they won't be scared to go to sleep but in the poem "The History Teacher" it's about a teacher lying to his class about the history of the earth which isn't a very good thing because the student don't know the truth.
I agree jacob -Michael
DeleteRobbie Mahlebjian
ReplyDeleteIn the story " A Barred Owl" the child is scarred of the owl outside. The parents come in to calm him down and help him go back to sleep saying the owl was just asking him a question. The parents make the owl seem like it's a friendly creature but in real life they kill their prey and eat them raw. They tell the kid the owl is friendly to kind of keep the innocence of the child. They say this to hide reality from the kid to make him think reality is not about death.
In the story "The History Teacher" the teacher lies to the kids about all these events in history to keep their innocence. Even though the events was about war and death he lies to keep the children safe. I like how the teacher and the parents in the other story both lie to keep the reality of the situations out of the mind of the children.
this is really deep bro
DeleteLuke Newton
ReplyDeleteIn "A Barred Owl" the child is afraid of the noise outside and his parents lie to him and tell him the owl is just asking him "who cooks for you? Who cooks for you?" They lie to him because they dont want their child to be afraid of the owl.
In "The History Teacher" the teacher lies to the students about real world events and history to preserve the childrens innocence and make sure they dont worry about things he thinks that children should not have to worry about. These poems both relate to Cartoon Physics.
I would have to disagree about liking the teachers decision but other than that I agree with you fully Robert.
ReplyDeleteDowol Lee
ReplyDeleteThe first poem, “A Barred Owl” by Richard Wilbur. The first thing I noticed was the rhyme scheme. The Rhyme scheme is a,a,b,b,cc. The author uses personification because animals cannot have some human traits. The mood of the poem is very sad and depressing. It is also spooky. It captures a child’s curiosity. The format is 6 lines per stanza.
The second poem, “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins was very entertaining. My first reaction was that it was a fun poem because it made up things in history. It is about a History teacher making things up about different events that happened in history. The poet uses imagery he paints picture. He explains the scenery, the flowerbed, and the white picket fences. Unlike the first poem, there is no specific format and is just scattered in an unorganized format. The mood of this poem
I agree that the first poem was very sad and depressing.
Deletenick Entner
Nick Entner
ReplyDeleteThese two poems where very similar they talk about a lot of the same things. The first poem has a rhyme scheme that is a,a,b,b,c,c. the author also uses many different literary devices. He uses personification to show the animals as different things. The poem is very odd and different form some others.
The second poem was very nice. It was very interesting. The teacher is just trying to make sure that the students don't get hurt by what is said. I think that the author made this poem to show that sometimes lies are good but they are also sometimes bad.
Xingyun Pan
ReplyDeleteMy first reaction to "A Barred Owl" is was the parent is trying to protect their child’s innocent way of thought and I think it is within an acceptable range. They explain things more gently to their child instead of distorting the meaning.
My first reaction to “The History Teacher” was not that good. In my opinion, a history teacher will be able to help students understand history correctly instead of trying to cover up some bloody facts. In the second part of the poem, we can see that even though you can cover the history but violence is still happening now. We need to face the truth.