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The title seems irrelevant, if judged on the surface. It is because the owl is neither a character in the poem nor related to the basic theme of the poem, which is the necessity of ‘food, fire and rest’. However, the title is symbolically significant. In the poem, the owl stands for the poet’s conscience and the owl’s cry symbolizes the poet’s inner voice. The owl’s cry brings a dramatic twist in the poem. It throws focus on the heart-rending suffering of soldiers and the poor through the poet’s feelings for them. The owl’s cry reveals the humanitarian trait of the poet’s character. It also helps establish the fact that the human conscience is a great teacher. So undeniably the title of the poem ‘The Owl’ is apt and relevant to the core.
Jerome K. Jerome the author of ‘Packing’ claims to be an expert and efficient packer. He boasts, “Packing is one of those many things that I feel I know more about than any other person living.” A close reading of the story proves him to be a worse packer. The author finds the boots outside after he has packed and strapped the bag. He opens the bag and packs the boots in. A ‘horrible idea’ invades him the moment he is about to close the bag. He turns everything out of the bag to check if he has packed his toothbrush. After searching the bag with a fine-toothed comb, he finds the toothbrush inside a book. The he repacks the bag only to find that he has packed his tobacco pouch in it. Then he has to re-open the bag and repacks it once again. Such a careless manner of packing the bag bears evidence to the fact that the author is an inefficient packer.
Next to the author Jerome K. Jerome, George and Harris is Montmorency, a funny character in the story ‘Packing’ taken from ‘Three Men in a Boat’. Adding to the intensity of fun in the story are the amusing activities of Montmorency. Montmorency is a very ambitious dog. Meddling with the affairs of others and being sworn at is his chief ambition in life. He aims to be a perfect nuisance by driving people mad. When things are thrown at him head, he feels that he has made the most of his day. He wants others to stumble over him and rebuke him steadily for an hour. Even when George and Harris are packing the hampers, Montmorency makes a mess of things by putting his leg into the jam, worrying teaspoons, and spoiling the lemons. He is the dog born with the original sin in him, according to the author Jerome K. Jerome.
