Monday, May 11, 2015

Please explain the ending of "All But Blind" by Walter de la Mare.

This is a very short poem, but one in which Walter de la
Mare tries to evoke the way in which nocturnal animals such as the owl and the mole,
when taken out of their element, are "all but blind" and incapable of functioning in
certain surroundings. This is perhaps most clearly expressed by the image of the barn
owl that we are given in the second stanza, when we imagine her "blundering on her way"
as she crashes into trees and tries to move around. Note the alliteration of the "b"
sound in this stanza and how it reinforces this
impression.


The final stanza then shifts the focus of the
poem away from nocturnal animals and then places it very firmly on us as
humans:



And
blind as are
These three to me,
So blind to someone
I must
be.



The issue of this poem
has to do with perspective. To us as humans, a mole and a barn owl are "blind" creatures
when taken out of their element. We can look at them and judge them as being blind.
However, blindness is a condition that is universal, the speaker says, as it becomes a
kind of motif that can provide an apt description for humans and the way that we think
we know what we are doing and where we are going but so often travel like the barn owl
crashing and blundering around. However, crucially, we do not have the self-awareness to
recognise that we are often metaphorically "blind" in our
dealings.

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