Each stanza has a specific motif.
Juxtaposition of owl (soft) and chisel (not soft)
“Who” onomatopia – gives emphasize on the owl-ness.
Step four: reread 12 more times
Step five: paraphrase
I’m a murdered woman who took the wrong way home, who was strangled in a vacant lot and left unburied, who was shot beneath a tree, who was mutilated with a knife. There are many of us.
I [soul/spirit] escaped; I am owl-like.
My mouth is a beak, my hands claws.
I sit in the forest talking about death again and again: death is death, the why is unclear.
I don’t want revenge/expiation. I just want to ask how I was lost.
I’m a future murderer, who has not yet known the desire to kill, who is still “normal.”
I [soul of future murderer] looking for the murderer within, he will have answers for me, he will be careful, will kill, my claws [the murdered owl-like soul] will change the murder’s hands to claws, he [the murderer] will not be caught.
Step six: purpose and theme
Purpose: to seek understanding or the “why” of death, especially murder/ to show there is murderous tendencies in all of us.
Theme: in this poem, Atwood attempts to seek the why of death and to show there are murderous tendencies in all of us.
Step seven: analysis
The poem “Owl Song” by Atwood is not just a poem about a song, as readers would assume before reading the poem. There is more to that, which will be explained later in this analysis. The purpose of this poem is to seek understanding or the “why” of death, especially murder, and to show there is murderous tendencies in all of us. In this poem, Atwood attempts to seek the why of death and to show there are murderous tendencies in all of us. Atwood has achieved her purpose successfully, through the use of owl imagery/motif, shifting first person speaker, and tone in the poem.
The owl imagery/motif runs throughout the poem. Owl, which acts as a symbol, is defined as “wise” and “night time predators.” This gives further emphasis on the idea of death in this poem. In the first stanza, the first words of lines 2-5 are “who,” which could be seen and/or interpreted as onomatopia. The word “who,” if verbally pronounced, is how owl often “sings.” The most important point to point out regarding the owl is that the owl transforms the soul of the victim into an owl-like spirit since the narrator “grew feathers” and escaped (as if she was flying- like owls), as portrayed in the second stanza of the poem. In the third stanza, the owl-like soul, or the narrator, sits in the “forest talking of death, which is monotonous” (lines 11-12). The word monotonous is defined as lacking in variety or simply repetitious. Owls could be interpreted as omen or death. When you see an owl, it means something grotesque is going to happen; perhaps something like death. Owls have seen death so often that they find it “monotonous.” The owl motif that runs throughout the poem gives understanding of the purpose as it transforms the soul of the victim into an owl-like spirit.
The shifting of the first person speaker is considered important in this particular poem. The “Is” in this poem are considered as repetitions as they are often repeated throughout the poem and they really stand out. The fact that they are repeated and really stand out give readers idea how important these “Is” are. The first “I” in the first stanza is refereeing to all murdered woman. In the second stanza, the “I” has transformed into some sort of “spirits/souls.” In the third and fourth stanza, the “Is” are still referring to the murdered woman/soul as they are trying to seek for an answer “it says why why” (line 16). However, the murdered woman shifts into a murderer in the fifth stanza as it says “I’m the lost heart of the murderer.” If you look at the first sentence of the first stanza, it says “I am the heart of the murdered woman.” The shift from a murdered woman into a “future” murderer is literally stated. Readers know that the narrator is a future murderer because she “has not yet killed” (line 22) and is still “normal.” The shift of the first person speaker gives understanding of the purpose. The first person speaker does not want revenge or expiation, but instead, she wants to understand the “why” of death. The only way for the first person narrator to do so is by transforming into a murderer as one who commits the murder will understand the “why.”
Furthermore, the poem in this poem is quite important. For instance, if the purpose of the poem is to seek for understanding, and as explained above, and the understanding does not arrive, then it’s hopeless. Therefore, the tone of this poem is bleak and/or ironic. To find why of the death won’t be achieved unless one commits the act. However, it is ironic because the speaker shifts into a future murderer but yet she does not want to seek for revenge but just an answer. However, once again, only one who commits the act will know the why. Since the first narration does not commit the act, she will never find the why of death; therefore, it’s hopeless. There are no answers. No matter how hard you have tried to find the answer, death is death. In addition, if the speaker has ever found the why, it’s pointless anyway because the speaker is dead.
