Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE OWL'S BEDTIME STORY, by RANDALL JARRELL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE OWL'S BEDTIME STORY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: There was once upon a time a little owl
Last Line: A friend to play with,if, now, you will fly
Subject(s): Friendship; Owls


There was once upon a time a little owl.
He lived with his mother in a hollow tree.
On winter nights he'd hear the foxes howl,
He'd hear his mother call, and he would see
The moonlight glittering upon the snow:
How many times he wished for company
As he sat there alone! He'd stand on tiptoe,
Staring across the forest for his mother,
And hear her far away; he'd look below
And see the rabbits playing with each other
And see the ducks together on the lake
And wish that he'd a sister or a brother:
Sometimes it seemed to him his heart would break.
The hours went by, slow, dreary, wearisome,
And he would watch, and sleep a while, and wake-
Come home! Come home! he'd think; and she would come
At last, and bring him food, and they would sleep.
Outside the day glared, and the troublesome
Sounds of the light, the shouts and caws that keep
An owl awake, went on; and, dark in daylight,
The owl and owlet nestled there. But one day, deep
In his dark dream, warm, still, he saw a white
Bird flying to him over the white good.
The great owl's wings were wide, his beak was bright.
He whispered to the owlet: "You have been good
A long time now, and waited all alone
Night after long night. We have understood
And you shall have a sister of your own
A friend to play with, if, now, you will fly
From your warn nest into the harsh unknown
World the sun lights." Down from the bright sky
The light fell, when at last the owlet woke.
Far, far away he heard an owlet cry.
The sunlight blazed upon a broken oak
Over the lake, and as he saw the tree
It seemed to the owlet that the sunlight spoke.
He heard it whisper: "Come to me! O come to me!"
The world outside was cold and hard and bare;
But at last the owlet, flapping desperately,
Flung himself out upon the naked air
And lurched and staggered to the nearest limb
Of the next tree. How good it felt to him,
That solid branch! And, there in that green pine,
How calm it was, how shadowy and dim!
But once again he flapped into the sunshine-
Through all the tumult of the unfriendly day,
Tree by tree by tree, along the shoreline
Of the white lake, he made his clumsy way.
At the bottom of the oak he saw a dead
Owl in the snow. He flew to where it lay
All cold and still; he looked at it in dread.
Then something gave a miserable cry-
There in the oak's nest, far above his head,
An owlet sat. He thought: The nest's too high,
I'll never reach it. "Come here!" he called. "Come here!"
But the owlet hid. And so he had to try
To fly up-and at last, when he was near
And stopped, all panting, underneath the nest
And she gazed down at him, her face looked dear
As his own sister's, it was the happiest
Hour of his life. In a little, when the two
Had made friends, they started home. He did his best
To help her: lurching and staggering, she flew
From branch to branch, and he flapped at her side.
The sun shone, dogs barked, boys shouted-on they flew.
Sometimes they'd rest; sometimes they would glide
A long way, from a high tree to a low,
So smoothly-and they'd feel so satisfied,
So grown-up! Then, all black against the snow,
Some crows came cawing, ugly things! The wise
Owlets sat still as mice; when one big crow
Sailed by, a branch away, they shut their eyes
And looked like lumps of snow. And when the night,
The friend of owls, had come, they saw the moon rise
And there came flying to them through the moonlight
The mother owl. How strong, how good, how dear
She did look! "Mother!" they called in their delight.
Then the three sat there just as we sit here,
And nestled close, and talked-at last they flew
Home to the nest. All night the mother would appear
And disappear, with good things; and the two
Would eat and eat and eat, and then they'd play.
But when the mother came, the mother knew
How tired they were. "Soon it will be day
And time for every owl to be in his nest",
She said to them tenderly; and they
Felt they were tired, and went to her to rest.
She opened her wings, they nestled to her breast.






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