Comparing 'Barn Owl And The Glass Jar'

Gwen Harwood, one of the most widely known poets in Australia, is known for her skilful use of language features and devices along with form to explore various themes. This is evident in her two poems “Barn Owl” and “The Glass Jar” where through potent symbolism and aesthetic linguistic elements, Harwood delves into the transition from childhood naivety to the harsh realities of life and experience. The “Barn Owl” is a story of how a child steals their father’s gun in excitement to shoot a barn owl and instead is forced to understand the horrors of taking a life. “The Glass Jar” is similar in this aspect as well as a boy in the despair of shattering his jar of light goes to seek comfort from his mother but is instead met with carnal knowledge, exhibiting his development into maturity. …show more content…
Harwood’s employment of enjambment in both poems, such as “Day waned”. In the evening, “she thought her heart would break,” heightens the emotional intensity, mirroring the child’s increasing awareness of their lost innocence. The enjambment in the lines reflect the suddenness of the child’s shift from innocence to experience, adding a layer of urgency and intensity to the narrative, to reflect his emotional state. The structure and rhyme of the poems further emphasize this theme, with the regular rhythm and rhyme scheme disrupted at crucial moments to mirror the disruption of the child’s innocent worldview. These disruptions act as a powerful reminder of the unsettling nature of the transition from innocence to experience, reinforcing the theme of lost