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Park sang joon Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

The connotations of words

In the night, when the owl is less than exquisitely swift and perfect, the scream of rabbit is terrible, But the scream of the owl, which is not of pain and hopelessness, and the fear of being plucked out of the world, but of the sheer rollicking glory of the death-bringer, is more terrible still. When I hear it resounding through the woods, and then the five black pellets of its song dropping like stones into the air, I know I am standing at the end of the mystery, in which terror is naturally part of life, part of even the most becalmed, intelligent, sunny life?as, for example, my own. The world where the owl is endlessly hungry and on the hunt is the world in which I live too. There is only one world.
[Source: Reading for Results Ninth Edition by Laraine Flemming]
I'd like to know if "five black pellets" indicate "owls" and "it" indicates "scream."
  

Top answer

I'd like to know if "five black pellets" indicate "owls" No. I have no idea what it means. The author is writing poetically.

— Clive

  • I'd like to know if "five black pellets" indicate "owls" No.
  • I have no idea what it means.
  • The author is writing poetically.
  • As a wild guess, I wonder if it means the owl's song has 5 musical notes?
  • " No, the owl.
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4 Answers
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I'd like to know if "five black pellets" indicate "owls" No.
I tried a Google search of the phrase and it did not help.I have no idea what it means.
The author is writing poetically. As a wild guess, I wonder if it means the owl's song has 5 musical notes? .

and "it" indi
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Thank you, Clive, for your kind message and the useful link.Emotion: smile
I was wondering why the author wrote "the five black pellets of its
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The writer is (rather melodramatically) associating the pellet-like excrement of the owl metaphorically with the "notes" of its grim night hunting "song." So instead of "the five black notes of its grim song dropping like stones in the air," he says "the five black pellets of its song dropping like stones in the air".
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