What Is The Theme Of The Poem The History Teacher By Billy Collins

The parents respond to her fear by telling her that the owl is only asking “an odd question…” (4). They say that if she “rightly listened” to the owl, she would be able to hear it merely asking “who cooks for you?” (6). The stanza expresses a humorous tone with phrases such as “[It] was an odd question from a forest bird…” (4), and “Who cooks for you?” (6). On one level, the parents comfort the child by telling a lie in order to get her back to sleep, on another level, this changes the perception the daughter has of the owl. The parents do this by using the term “forest bird”, instead of “owl” to make her feel less intimidated. Through this lie she perceives the owl as a friendly forest creature, rather than a horrid monster from the night. The poem’s “AABBCC” rhyme scheme also helped further establish the tone, giving a child-like feeling to it, because it’s often used in fairy tales which is meant for children. Wilbur believes that the lie is a good way to help the child go to sleep. He justifies it in the

Murphy expresses how justifying bad deeds for good is cruel by first stirring the reader’s emotions on the topic of bullying with pathos. In “White Lies,” Murphy shares a childhood memory that takes the readers into a pitiful classroom setting with Arpi, a Lebanese girl, and the arrival

I did not want to shock readers, but I wanted to tell the historical truth, not conceal it. Talking to children about the book before I wrote it helped me decide what to do. My niece’s second grade class invited me to teach a seminar on writing. When I walked into the room, they presented me with a handmade poster offering tips on how to write for kids. Tip #1 was “No foul language.”

Virginia Stem Owens, in “Telling the Truth in Lies,” reveals that reasoning, by fictional stories, provides an effective way of knowledge for children. In this short essay, Virginia Stem Owens explains that children learn about the world through the lens of fiction. They make sense of the world, by using these stories to make connections with the world around them. The author reveals this when she gives her experience with fictional stories. She describes it as the place where she realized that “understanding and hope nourished.”

In “A Barred Owl”, Wilbur uses personification to soothe the child’s fears. The adults tells the awakened and frightened child that the sound she heard was actually “an odd question from a forest bird… [which was] “who cooks for you?” (Wilbur). Wilbur uses personification effectively throughout the adult’s appeasement of the child. Forest birds, like the one that the adult is describing to the child, obviously cannot speak nor ask questions. However, this element makes the coverup of what truly happened more believable to the child. The adult wanted the child to tune out what really happened (an owl eating its prey) in favor of listening to a bird ask them questions, which soothes the child. The personification allows the adult to convince the child that there is nothing to fear, which the child eventually accepts, thereby proving Wilbur’s point.

In “A Barred Owl,” Wilbur constructs a singsong narrative of two stanzas with three couplets each. This arrangement provides a simple and steady rhythm that echoes the parents’ crooning to their child when she is frightened by “the boom / [o]f an owl’s voice” (1-2). A light-hearted tone is established when they “tell the wakened child that all she heard / [w]as an odd question from a forest bird” (3-4). The parents’ personification of the owl makes it less foreign and intimidating, and therefore alleviates the child’s worry. The interpretation of the hooting as a repetitive and absurd question — “Who cooks for you?” — further makes light of the situation (6). The second stanza introduces a more ominous tone by directly addressing the contrasting purposes words may serve given a speaker’s intention. While they “can make our terror bravely clear,” they “[c]an also thus domesticate a fear” (7-8). This juxtaposition is

As the reader acknowledges the figurative language that the author has put in this story, the reader gains assurance that the boys are much bigger and can overtake these tiny little helpless birds, “Their breath came out in slow puffs of steam… The pheasants’ breath came out in a quick little white puff” (Heynen). The writers incorporated the comparison from the boys to the bird to demonstrate to the reader how the boys could have easily overtaken the helpless little birds. Moreover, the author incorporated imagery to set the mood of what is occurring, “The boys stood still in the icy rain...pounce on a pheasant… things around them were shining and dripping with icy rain” (Heynen 1). The author

Comparing both of the poem, it carries across a similar message that the horror of mortality can allow a young individual to understand and realise the truth of the harsh reality. In 'Barn Owl,' due to the shot which she delivers, she has to 'end what [she had] begun' as she must be responsible for her actions and begin to act like an adult.Harwood uses enjambment, “obscene bundle of stuff” to create a sense of sympathy as attention is drawn to the detailed description of the owl's death. The use of the word, 'stuff' is quite child-like but at the same time, the phrase provides a vivid and evocative imagery of the ugliness of the owl's death. It also emphasises her inhuman actions that cause the owl to '[hobble] in its own blood' which are represented in the light imagery and like the owl she can 'not bear the light nor hide' as 'what [she has] begun' is the unavoidable journey from innocence to experience. As Harwood raises her 'innocent hand' it has caused her to regret it for 'sixty years'. Although Harwood did not have the real intension of winning, she made the choice of spelling it correctly. This shows the importance of her decision and that despite 60 years has gone by, guilt and regret still remain

2. What does the old woman mean when she says of the bird: “I don’t know…in your hands”? Why do you think she repeats – “It is in your hands.”? How has this phrase become a metaphor? What is it a metaphor for?

We all think children are all innocent and cute, but is that really true? We always give excuses for children’s misconduct, distracting ourselves from the real truth. Kids are capable of terrible things that adults quickly ignore. Children can be very scary because of their capabilities that most adults believe to be innocent mistakes. One story that explores this fear is Ray Bradbury’s “The Man Upstairs.”

Fairy tales are under attack in the United States from both right- and left-oriented pressure groups. (Ravitch, 62-96) From the left, the charges include sexism, stereotyping, distortion, and anti-humanism. (Ravitch, 84) From the right, the charges include immorality and objections to the portrayal of violence, death, and the supernatural. In addition, some critics claim that the tales terrify their children. (Ravitch, 76). In The Language Police, Diane Ravitch claims that both groups understand the importance of putting pressure on state textbook adoption committees, and that, as a result of such pressure, most major publishers are simply dropping the tales from the textbooks they sell to

Harwood introduces the idea of maturity, responsibility and grief in her poems 'Father and Child'. The "Barn Owl" poem is situated around her childhood whereas "Nightfall" is situated around her adulthood, through different settings comes different themes, focuses and lessons. Within the first stanza of "Barn Owl", authority is challenged with the child wanting to prove to her sleeping father that she is not an 'obedient gentle angel.' The child is obviously bitter towards her father, regarding him as 'old no-sayer' which alludes to the controlling, vengeful God of the Old Testament. She thinks that her father is now robbed of his power because he is asleep and is unaware of her plans. With Harwood contesting against authority at such an

Through this great horned owl, Oliver is able to convey a double-meaning. Not only is it a creature, but the meaning of death. It can be deceiving and appear like a “big soft moth”, but also turn around and “eat the whole world”. She uses this owl to represent the concept of death because anyone or anything can be enjoying

“Our mouths opened and shut and we froze where we sat. I suppose we could have honked and waved and it wouldn’t have raised any more pandemonium than this poor mother already had to deal with but instead we held perfectly still. Even Turtle, after a long minute or two the quail got her family herded off the road into some scraggly bushes” (96). The birds are significant symbolism in this book. They often appear in the book to symbolize Turtle; Kingsolver did this to show Turtle is a strong survival instinct child. First, when Taylor took Turtle to doctor and discovered that she has been abused and raped. As she makes this discovery, she sees a bird nest on a cactus. This shows that Turtle, in spite of her surroundings she keep persists. Also, when Turtle met the robber, a sparrow got caught in Lou Ann’s house, the bird getting scared shows the Turtle’s confusion and fright. But sparrow survives and leaves the house; this shows that even though Turtle is going through confusion she will survive. Finally, the quote shows the moment when Lou Ann and Taylor found a family of birds on the road. This quote symbolizes how Turtle is satisfied with her small family, feel safe, and she is happy.

Have you ever been hurt by words or inspired by a saying? It’s staggering that they can change people's life for good or end it altogether. The Wave, a short novel based on a true story by Morton Rhue, demonstrates the power of words in good and bad ways. The novel is about a teacher who dictates his students into a Nazi-like student group as a lesson for his history class. However, the simple, seemingly harmless experiment soon goes out of hand and no one can stop the students organization, The Wave. An important idea in the text is ‘words can be used for harm or for good. One author method that is used by Rhue to convey this idea is the power of repetition of harmful words. And a second author method that is used by Rhue to reveal this idea is persuasive, emotive language by Mr Ross to get students on board with the experiment.