How many wits have you got, Owls have five! and they keep them warm! Lord Tennysonâs poem, The Owl (1830) re-enforces the owls ancient association with wisdom and itâs sinister nocturnal activities. Tennyson describes the owl as having,âfive witsâ Not only having them but,âwarmingâ them! âAlone and warming his five wits The white owl in the belfry sitsâ The poem is a description of an owl watching over events in a rural landscape. The suggestion is that from its vantage point in the bell tower (This is an interesting position! In Shakespeareâs Macbeth, lady Macbeth says, hark! Peace! It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman) The owl is indifferent and superior to all the goings on in the countryside. The five wits suggest an extra sensory perception! In the 1500âs there were commonly thought to be five senses and five wits. The inward and outward wits were the product of many centuries of philosophical and psychological thought.The concept of five outward wits(senses, taste smell, etc) and five inward wits(âcommon witâ, âimaginationâ, âfantasyâ, âestimationâ, and âmemoryâ.) came to medieval thinking from Classical philosophy. but in Early Modern English, âwitâ and âsenseâ overlapped in meaning. Both could mean a faculty of perception. So for the owl in Tennysonâs poem to have five wits; it would suggest it was in position of considerable mental agility! .... #owl#owls#wisdom#LordTennyson#Tennyson#fivewits#wits#wise#watercolour#watercolourartist