Response to passage from "Owls" by Mary Oliver

In the passage from "Owls", Mary Oliver uses various rethorical devices to convey the complexity of her response to nature. The use of imagery is prominent throughout the passage. In line 4 she use sound imagery: "...I look up at it and listen to the heavy, crisp, breathy snapping of its hooded beak. In lines 20-21 the visual image is repulsive: "...for the owl has an insatiable craving for the taste of brains." These descriptions makes the writing be so vivid that it made me feel as if the owl could appear any second and use his beak to pick my own brain.

Juxtaposition in lines 28-29 is used to emphasize their irony: "...the rolicking glory..." -the owl's contentment and fulfillment- "...death bringer..." For people death by someone elses hand is a murder to an owl it means exhilaration, the essence of its own survival. The settings are also juxtaposed to pinpoint a shift; from the cold winters and nights of the owl to the images of the author's reminiscence of summer fields of flowers. Furthermore, both accounts become parallel as the image of the flowers becomes increasingly eerie.