A Barred Owl: Poetry Analysiss

Richard Wilbur's poem "A Barred Owl" consists of 2 stanzas each made up of 6 lines of about the same length and one sentence each. Each stanza consists of a rhyming pattern of AABBCC. In thefirst line the "B" in "boom" recalls the "B" in "brought". The word "boom" is onomatopoeia. "Warping night" and "having brought" both have similar endings with the "ing" and the "ght" and this is a form of internal rhyme.

There is also internal rhyme with "darkened", "wakened" and "listened" in the second, third and fifth line. Internal rhyme makes the lines flow together. There are many words with "D" sounds in thefirst stanza such as "da", "ed", ld", "rd", and "odd". There is a break in the 5th line accentuated by a comma which slows the rhythm of that line.

There is personification of the owl when it is able to ask a question. The question "who cooks for you?" is onomatopoeia since it sounds like the hoot of an owl. In the third line, the "w" in "wakened" recalls the "w" in "we". The words "tell" and "all" have the same ending but are introduced by different vowels. I also notice that the third and fourth lines both start with "w".In the fourth line the "f" from "forest" recalls the "f" from "from". Thefirst line in the second stanza has a break after "words" accentuated by a comma putting emphasis on the word "words" and slowing the rhythm of that sentence. In "bravely clear" there is a reversed letter pattern "el" and "le", which makes the words flow together. The words "child", "night", "some" and "small" are repeated throughout this poem …