I really need help analysing the poems "The Owl" by Edward Thomas and " A Blackbird Singing" by R.S. Thomas especially the sound devices uses in both poems.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2006 10:42PM by lg.

Let's take a look at the two:

A Blackbird Singing
R.S. Thomas

It seems wrong that out of this bird,
Black, bold, a suggestion of dark
Places about it, there yet should come
Such rich music, as though the notes'
Ore were changed to a rare metal
At one touch of that bright bill.

You have heard it often, alone at your desk
In a green April, your mind drawn
Away from its work by sweet disturbance
Of the mild evening outside your room.

A slow singer, but loading each phrase
With history's overtones, love, joy
And grief learned by his dark tribe
In other orchards and passed on
Instinctively as they are now,
But fresh always with new tears.

==============================================================================

The Owl
--Edward Thomas

Downhill I came, hungry, and yet not starved,
Cold, yet had heat within me that was proof
Against the North wind; tired, yet so that rest
Had seemed the sweetest thing under a roof.

Then at the inn I had food, fire, and rest,
Knowing how hungry, cold, and tired was I.
All of the night was quite barred out except
An owl's cry, a most melancholy cry.

Shaken out long and clear upon the hill
No merry note, nor cause of merriment,
But one telling me plain what I escaped
And others could not, that night, as in I went.

And salted was my food, and my repose,
Salted and sobered too, by the bird's voice
Speaking for all who lay under the stars,
Soldiers and poor, unable to rejoice.

Les

Lacking a definition of 'sound devices', I suspect we can go with the usual alliteration, assonance, consonance, rhythm/meter and rhyme. Yeah, one can also write poems in such a manner as to suggest specific sounds, such as the owl's hoot or the blackbird's chirp, but I don't see such a technique in either of these.

The blackbird one starts out with lots of 'B' sounds (bird black bold), with muted vowel sounds, I guess to imply darkness. Plus, the lack of rhyme and consistent rhythm could slow the verse to match the 'slow singer' RST is describing.

For Edward T. he probably wants us to hear the melancholy cry of the owl, so one infers there are such sounds & ideas built into his description. He starts with 'H' sounds, again with muted vowels (more uh, ah, eh sounds than OH, AYE, EYE ones), and many 'S' sounds later on. I see plenty of 'L' sounds in each, which also convey a lullabye effect.

Is this the kind of information sought? Any hidden messages, or just straight nature poems? Your call.

Both poets use alliteration which is most notable in the last stanza of the Owl where E.T. uses the "s" sound repeatedly.

Les

How about the mood is both these poems?

I think the tone or mood of the first can be found here:

love, joy
And grief learned by his dark tribe
In other orchards and passed on
Instinctively as they are now,
But fresh always with new tears.

The second poem's mood, or tone is set with these lines:

All of the night was quite barred out except
An owl's cry, a most melancholy cry.

Speaking for all who lay under the stars,
Soldiers and poor, unable to rejoice.


I would say that the first poem is a little bit more optimistic than the second, where Edward Thomas clearly feels the loss of those soldiers who were killed in WWI.

Les

What exactly is the poem by R.S. Thomas about anyway?

> What exactly is the poem by R.S. Thomas about anyway?

That's open to interpretation, but my take on the poem is this:

Thomas is saying that out of a dark bird we should probably here a mournful, dark song. But in the last stanza he says:


A slow singer, but loading each phrase
With history's overtones, love, joy
And grief learned by his dark tribe
In other orchards and passed on
Instinctively as they are now,

To me those words, especially "love,joy" mean that the poet feels there is also hope in the blackbird's song of life.


Les

That makes sense to me. It is ostensibly a nature poem, but one infers an underlying meaning or purpose therein. Take Shelley's Ode to the West Wind, or his To a Skylark. The wind and the bird are the subjects, but they have implications beyond merely that. What does the west wind bring to humanity, for example? Or, take the ending in Skylark,


Teach me half the gladness
That thy brain must know;
Such harmonious madness
From my lips would flow,
The world should listen then, as I am listening now.


What does the skylark teach us, according to Percy B.?

Same thing with the blackbird and/or the owl. We mustn't do the assigments for Gayle, but reading the poems with such ideas in mind should help with a personal interpretation.