The Man, The Myth, The Bird

edward thomas:the owl. 

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.

“The Owl” by Edward Thomas is a poem, like many from its World War I era, that draws on experiences from the front lines. A traveler's misery is recounted as he stops for the night and the poem finds its heart in the narrative of a forgotten person who takes comfort in the cries of birds. There are many structural, sound and figurative elements that help to create the poem's tone of dismay and its resolution of hope.

Thomas' structural elements give one the feeling of organization and reassurance – as though mirroring the feeling of the soldier's walk along a straight path. It is narrated in the first person and the traveler is not talking to anyone in particular: he simply recounts. The poem is broken down into four quatrains with similar line lengths. Each stanza is neat and compact and takes on the same general shape, with every new line capitalized regardless of whether or not the sentence ended at the line break. For the most part, line breaks do not come at the end of sentences – the 1^st, 3^rd and 4^th quatrain are composed of one sentence with a period at the final word of the quatrain. The 2^nd breaks this by having two sentences, one ending on the 2^nd line and one on the 4^th. Due in part to this, the poem's rhythm is somewhat unpredictable. However, there are many end-stopped lines and only a few enjambed lines, which helps to give the poem a feeling of stability.

The poem's rhythm is also unpredictable due to its unequal meter. For example, the first line of the word of the poem “downhill” is an iamb while the second line begins with “cold,” a lame foot. There is not predictability or reason to the meter's scheme which adds to the poem's theme of loneliness and unease that the traveler feels – one is not quite sure what to expect. However, the poem still has a sense of purpose for the reader's mouth due to its concise lines of similar lengths and its thoughtful sound elements, as though the poet is trying to keep a panicked feeling under control. The poem follows a “B/B” rhyme scheme – the second line always rhymes with the fourth in each quatrain. The last quatrain sees a sudden abundance of alliteration – “salted, sobered, speaking, stars, soldiers” and adds a soothing quality though the poem's tone is bleak.

The poem's interpretations are many, but the language and structural elements help to narrow it into more concise terms and modify the mood. At its surface, “The Owl” is about a soldier who is traveling, tired and is ready for comfort. Though desperate, he is still holding onto shreds of hope, as seen in lines such as “hungry, and not yet starved” and “Cold, yet heat within me that was proof against the North wind.” The traveler is able to face the elements and keep his head up, despite his bleak conditions and weary state and yet the wind is so cold, he wants to be inside – “rest...the sweetest thing under a roof.”

The traveler stops at an inn where the bodily needs he spoke of before are met: he has “food, fire and rest.” When he lays down to sleep though, an owl's cry penetrates. Here is the repetition of the title within the poem and here the importance of the poem's meaning begins to emerge. The opening two quatrains merely set the scene. The owl's cry is long and sad (“no merry no, nor cause of merriment) but the soldier is reminded, in this moment, that he is alive to hear the cry and thus, has escaped a fate that many of his fellow companions did not. The cry seems to remind him that he is here in the world; it brings him back to the world, whereas before he seemed to be within himself, almost unaware. It is a bittersweet reminder, for the solider seems to be grateful that he is still alive, yet saddened to be reminded of the others who have died, when it could have easily been himself. The last stanza seems to go further into the owl's cry. The word salted is repeated twice, referencing first food and then the soldier's repose. The salt is perhaps a signifier of tears, which are salt-water. The solider is “salted” by the bird's voice – the atmosphere turns bitter and sad and even his food doesn't taste right. Then, within the bleakness, the final two lines contain a shred of hope. The bird “speaks for all who lay under the stars...unable to rejoice.” Those unable to rejoice could mean people such as the traveler, who finds himself mourning his losses, or could also represent those who have died, those who “lay” under the stars in graves – the owl, in some cultures, is a symbol of lost souls.

As such, the owl's cry is the center and hope of the poem. It is a symbol of mourning and melancholy, a sad sound, as well as a symbol of beauty and life. The owl will always cry out no matter how many people have died in a war and it signals the comfort that life will go on and the world will still exist, no matter how bleak things may seem.