Song—The Owl
Song—The Owl - form Summary
Refrain Centers the Owl
Tennyson’s short song uses simple, rhythmic lines and a repeated refrain to present a compact rural scene. Dusk and early morning domestic sounds—cats, dew, milkmaids, cock—frame the white owl perched in a belfry. The musical form and repetition give the poem a circular, lullaby-like quality, while the refrain "Alone and warming his five wits" fixes attention on the owl’s solitary, alert presence amid routine village life.
Read Complete Analyses1 When cats run home and light is come, And dew is cold upon the ground, And the far-off stream is dumb, And the whirring sail goes round, And the whirring sail goes round; Alone and warming his five wits, The white owl in the belfry sits. 2 When merry milkmaids click the latch, And rarely smells the new-mown hay, And the cock hath sung beneath the thatch Twice or thrice his roundelay, Twice or thrice his roundelay; Alone and warming his five wits, The white owl in the belfry sits.
First printed in 1830.
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