The DM Collection | Tawny Owl Card

In Lord Tennyson’s poem, The Owl (1830) he describes the owl as having, ”five wits”. The concept of five outward wits (senses, taste smell, etc) and five inward wits (“common wit”, “imagination”, “fantasy”, “estimation”, and “memory”) came to medieval thinking from Classical philosophy. In Early Modern English, “wit” and “sense” overlapped in meaning. Both could mean a faculty of perception. So for the owl in Tennyson’s poem to have five wits suggest it was in position of considerable mental agility!

Watercolor illustration of a Tawny Owl by Daniel Mackie. Printed on High quality 330gsm card. 

• Size | 7" x 5"
• Cards are blank inside
• Packed with envelope
• Printed on high-quality 330gsm card
• Made in the UK
• Style Code | A167
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