Barred Owl and History Teacher

longer. In “A Barred Owl” and “The History Teacher”, both poets do this when kids ask questions that they don’t really need to know the actual answer to. However, although each author has the same idea, they convey it differently in their poems by using different literary devices

In “A Barred Owl,” and “The History Teacher,” the authors write about adults explaining outside stimuli to the children. In both poems, the authors use literary devices that give a different tone and outcome to the poem. In “A Barred Owl,” and “The History Teacher,” adults are telling the children something in response to events that have happened, but results are contrasting, and lead to differences in the lives of the main agencies. Richard Wilbur in “A Barred Owl” uses dark tone and rhyming to

In “A Barred Owl” by Richard Wilbur and “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins, the authors both argue that innocence is necessary to cultivate the ideal child via their protective tones, deceptive plot, and contrasting rhyme schemes. In both Wilbur's and Collins’ poems, they convey a protective tone to maintain the idea that children must remain pure. In “A Barred Owl”, Wilbur talks of lying to the child that the owl was asking “Who cooks for you?” rather than a scary animal call. The protective

calls of a barred owl break the silence. A young child bolts upright in bed with fear written across her innocent face. A teacher’s class is about to be taught a lesson on The Ice Age. The parents of the frightened child hush their daughter and say it was just an inquisitive owl that scared her awake. The teacher pulls on a sweater and says, “Cavemen wore these a lot in The Ice Age.” The children in these scenarios are the victims of deceit. Both poems, “A Barred Owl” and “The History Teacher” by Richard

Both A Barred Owl as well as The History Teacher both dive into the topics of children and their lives. One poem focuses more on the innocence and unknown of a child’s mind, the other focus on the more mature and adolescent child/teenager. One poem takes a loving and comforting approach while the other shows what happens when no one is watching. Each poem is quite unique while at the same time providing you with a story that keeps it interesting to the reader. One piece that stays constant throughout

The poems “A Barred Owl” and “the History Teacher” by Richard Wilbur and Billy Collins respectively, depict two different scenarios where a child is lied to because an adult feels the need to protect them. Both poets use different techniques in their rhyme scheme, and tone, to show that while it may be appropriate to shield a child from a menacing owl, it is less so to skew the facts from the world’s past. When looking at “A Barred Owl”, we see that a girl’s parents are consoling her in the middle

“A Barred Owl” and “The History Teacher” are two poems that show how adults lie to children in order to protect them and their innocence. The poets use imagery and symbolism to show that adults occasionally lie to young kids to protect them. Both poets use imagery to convey their message. In “A Barred Owl,” Wilbur describes the young child in her “darkened room” when “the warping night air” brought “the boom.” This imagery helps show the idea that the young girl is alone in the dark, when she

“A Barred Owl” and “The History Teacher” The poems “A Barred Owl” and “the History Teacher” by Richard Wilbur and Billy Collins respectively, depict two different scenarios in which an adult deceives a child about something in the world. “A Barred Owl” has parents who lie to their child about an owl who waked her in the night, while “The History Teacher” tells us about a man who tries to protect his students by deceiving them. Techniques are used by both poets to convey a particular tone. While

stories. In “A Barred Owl” and “The History Teacher,” the poets present the idea that adults always attempt to shield their children from the danger of the outside world. The former speaker employs onomatopia to facilitate children to overcome fear, and the latter euphemizes the cruelty of warfare. However, while the former adopts a playful tone and style to “domesticate fear” (Wilbur 8), the latter aims to “protect… innocence” in a sarcastic tone (Collins 1), resulting

How Lying can be Both Good and Bad The poems “A Barred Owl” and “The History Teacher” by Richard Wilbur and Billy Collins respectively, depict two different scenarios in which an adult deceives a child/children, which ranges from the sounds of a bird at night, to the history of the world itself. “A Barred Owl” depicts two parents who lie to their daughter about an owl who woke her in the night, while “The History Teacher” involves a man who tries to protect his students by using education as a tool