21 pages • 42 minutes read
Edward LearThe Owl and the Pussy-Cat
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1871A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Form, Meter, and Rhyme
“The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” is a rhyming poem which relies on end rhymes, internal rhymes, and repetition to achieve its distinctive musical quality. Organized in three 11-line stanzas, the poem roughly follows an ABCBDEDEEEE rhyme scheme, with the last four lines of each stanza ending on the same word. In Stanzas 2 and 3, the fifth and seventh line do not rhyme as they do in the first stanza. Examples of internal rhyme or half rhyme, where rhyming words occur within a line, can be seen in instances such as, “They took some honey, and plenty of money” (Line 3), and “O let us be married! too long we have tarried” (Line 14).
Repetition occurs in the form of the ending refrain of each stanza, as in the end of the second stanza:
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose (Lines 18-22).
Along with the rhyme and the refrains, the poem also gets its sing-along quality from the preponderance of mono- and disyllabic words with an emphatic or long vowel sound. Words such as “sea” (Line 1), “honey” (Line 3), “nose” (Line 19), “spoon” (Line 28), and “moon” (Line 30) make the poem easy to say aloud as well as remember, which is fitting since the poem is an example of children’s verse.
The most successful poems for children are often highly musical and rich with mnemonic devices, which make them stick in memory. In “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat,” one such mnemonic device is the poem’s accentual meter. Accentual meter is found in works of Old English as well as in nursery rhymes, and refers to rhyming lines containing the same number of stresses, even when the number of syllables vary. For instance, if one says aloud Lines 12-15 in “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat,” the stresses (shown through emphasis) tend to fall in place, even though the line lengths are different:
Pussy said to the Owl, ‘You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! Too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?’ (Lines 12-15).
Accentual meter is predominantly oral, in that it is arises from the patterns of speech. It is natural therefore, that it is found in forms as diverse as Old English verse, nursery rhymes, and speak-aloud poetry as well as rap songs. “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” contains some distinct features of Old English poetry. Like in Old English verse, the poem frequently uses a caesura or a strong mid-line pause, often indicated by a comma. It also uses the leonine rhyme, in which the word before the caesura rhymes with the word at the end of the line, as in the line, “They took some honey, and plenty of money” (Line 3).
Alliteration, Assonance, and Repetition
In alliteration, initial consonant sounds are repeated in closely placed words. Examples of alliteration in the poem include “How charmingly sweet you sing” (Line 13) and “And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood” (Line 18). The repeated consonant sounds in both instances add rhythm and flow to the poem; they also emphasize individual words. Assonance is the aural literary device in which vowel sounds are repeated close together. A good example of how assonance works in “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” can be seen in the end of the first stanza:
‘O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!’ (Lines 7-11).
Here the “yoo” sound is repeated in the words “beautiful” and “you” threading through the refrain, emphasizing the vowel sound.
Repetition is part of the poem’s structure, with the last four lines of each stanza comprising of repeated words and phrases. For instance, consider the last four lines of the poem
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon (Lines 30-33).
The neat pattern—the full line repeated at beginning and end, and the last phrase echoing in the middle—binds the poem. This specific kind of repetition can be termed a refrain, and is a common feature of songs, ballads, and children’s verse.
Apart from the refrain, other words and phrases are repeated through the poem as well. For example, the word “beautiful” is repeated both in the refrain of the first stanza, as well as in Line 2—“a beautiful pea-green boat.” Often the repetition is meaningful, echoing the poem’s themes or building its symbolism and imagery. The word “married” recurs in Lines 14 and 25, while “ring” occurs in Lines 15, 19, 22, and 24. Both “married” and “ring” highlight the themes of love, companionship, and romance, while “ring” is also an important symbol in the poem.
Anthropomorphism
With all the characters in the poem’s universe being sentient animals, anthropomorphism is its chief poetic device. Anthropomorphism refers to the attribution of human speech, behavior, and thoughts to animals. The literary trope of “talking animals,” common in children’s literature, is an example of anthropomorphism. The owl and the pussy-cat are separate species, which in real life would never mate; however, in the poem’s universe their differences do not matter. They are simply two “people” in love. Their human qualities and actions include sailing in a boat, serenading each other, and going on a quest for a ring.
The owl and the pussy-cat get married and, “hand in hand” (Line 29), dance on a moonlit beach to celebrate their union. Notice how Lear doubles down on specifics like the animals holding hands (instead of paw and wing) to enliven the poem’s anthropomorphic world. Not only are the owl and the pussy-cat given human traits, so are the pig carrying a ring on its “nose” (Line 19) and the turkey officiating the wedding. The anthropomorphism is central to creating the poem’s magical, whimsical world where anything is possible and the imagination can be set loose.
