Approaching an unseen poem with confidence:
‘The Owl’ by Edward Thomas
Teaching notes
These notes and accompanying resource have been written by Trevor Millum, poet and
curator of The Poetry Place. In this resource, it is assumed that students have had some
experience of approaching unseen poems.
At some point students will have to face a poem for the first time without any specific
help. They have to make use of the skills they have learnt and, hopefully, the confidence
that has been gradually built up.
Edward Thomas’s poem, ‘The Owl’ is provided as the unseen poem. It needs careful
reading but it should be accessible to most students. If you feel that using an ‘immersed’
version of the poem as prose would be helpful, you could use the PowerPoint slides that
form part of this resource. You could challenge your students to pick out the words that
make up the poem.
If you wish to pose a question to analyse the poem, it could be: Show how Thomas’s
reactions to the owl are expressed in the poem.
You may wish to provide less able students with the writing framework provided. This
could also be used with any class as a way of looking at the poem afterwards - carrying
out a debriefing session. How did they structure their answers? How did their answers
compare with the framework?
Here are some discussion points to mull over as a class or perhaps in groups. Reflecting
on students’ work is a crucial stage in improving their responses, so do encourage some
focused discussion and some written notes along the lines of: ‘I didn’t say enough
about….’; ‘I wrote too much about…’; ‘I should have put a short quote in to show…’ – as
well as positive points – ‘I’m glad I noticed…’; ‘Pleased that I made the point that…’
Discussion points
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The poem is called ‘The Owl’ but is it about an owl? What might be an alternative
title? The interactive Sequencing activity might prove useful to discuss possible
alternatives.
Repetition is usually a good pointer to the heart of a poem. What is the effect of
the repeated use of ‘yet’?
Other repetitions which merit exploration: ‘cry’, ‘merry’ / ‘merriment’, ‘salted’.
Interesting language features: ‘shaken out’, ‘salted and sobered’, ‘speaking for’,
barred out’, ‘plain’. ‘Salted’ has a rich variety of possibilities and gives an
opportunity to discuss ambiguity and mixed emotions.
Which words imply that he has been walking, not driving or being driven?
What do the words ‘under the stars’ imply?
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
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Approaching an unseen poem with confidence:
‘The Owl’ by Edward Thomas
‘The Owl’ by Edward Thomas
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.
*Repose = rest
© www.teachit.co.uk 2014
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Approaching an unseen poem with confidence:
‘The Owl’ by Edward Thomas
‘The Owl’
You could use these sentence stems to help you write about the poem.
 The poet arrives at an inn, having ............................................................................
...................................................................................................................................
 He is glad of the food, fire and rest but the owl’s cry reminds him that ........................
...................................................................................................................................
 These thoughts affect how he feels about his food and his ‘repose’, so that .................
...................................................................................................................................
 The poem is written in a regular form .......................................................................
...................................................................................................................................
 Although the verses are ...........................................................................................
the run-on lines (enjambment) mean that .....................................................................
 The poem depends on contrasts. He is hungry, cold and tired, but ..............................
...................................................................................................................................
 However, later on his satisfaction is ..........................................................................
by contrasting it with ...................................................................................................
 Thomas’s language is mainly simple and direct but he uses repetition to ......................
...................................................................................................................................
 His only use of imagery is the word ‘ ......................................................................... ’
which conveys a sense of .............................................................................................
 I think that the poem ...............................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................
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