Compare And Contrast A Barred Owl And The History Teacher

While growing up, children learn various lessons from their elders that will eventually pay off at some point in their life. For instance, a teacher may request that a student wait their turn to speak, and therefore helps that child learn the virtue of patience. In both of the poems provided, a child or children are taught something, but, within the poems themselves, not both things being taught are beneficial. In "A Barred Owl" by Richard Wilbur, a little girl is shown by her parents that she does not need to be afraid of sudden noises she hears in the night. While in "The History Teacher" by Billy Collins, the teacher lies to his students in an attempt to spare their innocence. Although both poems seem to vary greatly, which they do …show more content…
In the first poem "A Barred Owl," a little girl is taught by either her mother or father that the noises she hears in the night are nothing to be afraid of and that she should just ignore them. While, in "The History Teacher," the speaker is informing his students about historical events, but changing them on purpose in order to possibly protect their innocence. The speaker of "A Barred Owl" is very forthright with the little girl, which, in the end, benefits her. In fact, the speaker of the poem believes that every parent should tell the truth to their children because it could "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." This ideal very much differs from that of the teacher in the "The History Teacher" because he justifies his "teaching" by stating that he is trying to protect their innocence. While both forms of teaching vary from each other, both poems still nevertheless involve …show more content…
However, this is not the case, for both possess the same message of "do not keep the truth from children." Where they begin to differ again is through their method of reaching to the same conclusion. Even though it has been mentioned several times already, "A Barred Owl" involves a parent teaching their child that they should not be afraid of noises they hear at night, and Wilbur has the parent possess a very forthright tone. In order to help show that the parent is being serious in what they say, Wilbur utilizes imagery when saying "or dreaming of some small thing in a claw borne up to some dark branch and eaten raw" which demonstrates the use of honesty from the parent. Moving along to "The History Teacher," Collins purposefully uses overstatement, understatement, and irony in multiple places to essentially show what not to do and therefore preach the same message of "do not keep the truth from children." Through the use of overstatements and understatements, the teacher lies to the students about historical events in order to spare their innocence. However, the ironic part of this is that after the teacher teaches them, the students go on to bully other kids, showing that they already do not have any innocence to spare in the first place.

While these poems may seem much different, the only real differences are the way they present the same