--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: In the hollow tree, in the old gray…" description: "\"In the hollow tree, in the old gray tower, The spectral Owl doth dwell; Dull, hated, despised, in the sunshine hour, But at the dusk--he's abroad and w..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/148/bryan-procter-21534_bird_in-the-hollow-tree-in-the-old-gray-tower_1507983.jpg" --- # In the hollow tree, in the old gray tower, The spectral… ![“In the hollow tree, in the old gray tower, The spectral Owl doth dwell; Dull, hated, despised, in the sunshine hour, But at the dusk--he's abroad and well! Not a bird of the forest e'er mates with him-- All mock him outright, by day: But at night, when the woods grow still and dim, The boldest…” quote by Bryan Procter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/148/bryan-procter-21534_bird_in-the-hollow-tree-in-the-old-gray-tower_1507983.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/148/bryan-procter-21534_bird_in-the-hollow-tree-in-the-old-gray-tower_1507983.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/148/bryan-procter-21534_bird_in-the-hollow-tree-in-the-old-gray-tower_1507983.jpg) > “In the hollow tree, in the old gray tower, The spectral Owl doth dwell; Dull, hated, despised, in the sunshine hour, But at the dusk--he's abroad and well! Not a bird of the forest e'er mates with him-- All mock him outright, by day: But at night, when the woods grow still and dim, The boldest will shrink away! O, when the night falls, and roosts the fowl, Then, then, is the reign of the Horned Owl!” [Bryan Procter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bryan-procter/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The owl, mocked by day, thrives at night when others fear, showing that hidden strengths emerge in darkness. **In simple terms:** Quiet strength shines when others retreat. Key Takeaway Embrace your unique abilities in the right setting. Themes acceptance night hidden talent Mood melancholic hopeful Type literary inspirational When to use this quote - personal growth - creative writing - leadership development - nighttime reflection Key Concepts psychology of self-esteem symbolism of darkness Questions to Reflect On - When do you feel most powerful? - How can you support others' hidden talents? A Different Perspective Societal norms may suppress unconventional strengths. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Bird](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bird/) [Dusk](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dusk/) [Forests](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/forests/) [Night](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/night/) [Owl](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/owl/) [Reign](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/reign/) [Shrinks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/shrinks/) [Sunshine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sunshine/) [Tree](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/tree/) [Woods](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/woods/) ## Related quotes > [“THE POOL Horned owl Stops his meditations, cleans his glasses, sighs. A firefly spins downhill & a star slides by. Old owl shaked his…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/federico-garc-a-lorca/the-pool-horned-owl-stops-his-meditations-cleans-his-glasses-sighs-a/) [Federico García Lorca](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/federico-garc-a-lorca/) > [“When the poet closed her eyes the wingspan of the great horned owl cast a tawny shadow over the green immense forests. 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Back and forth, it has no resting place, Night…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/qian-tao/unsettled-a-bird-lost-from-the-flock-keeps-flying-by-itself-in-the/) Qian Tao > [I've been so mistreated by male authority in my life that I had a terrible time in my marriage trying to be a submissive…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joyce-meyer/i-ve-been-so-mistreated-by-male-authority-in-my-life-that-i-had-a/) [Joyce Meyer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joyce-meyer/) > [The chickens are coming home to roost, and you happen to have just moved into the chicken house.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/douglas-macarthur/the-chickens-are-coming-home-to-roost-and-you-happen-to-have-just/) [Douglas MacArthur](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/douglas-macarthur/) > [Curses, like chickens, always come home to roost.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/english-proverb/curses-like-chickens-always-come-home-to-roost/) English Proverb > [The structure of a play is always the story of how the birds came home to roost.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arthur-miller/the-structure-of-a-play-is-always-the-story-of-how-the-birds-came/) [Arthur Miller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arthur-miller/) > [A bird can roost but on one branch, a mouse can drink not more than its fill from a river.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chinese-proverbs/a-bird-can-roost-but-on-one-branch-a-mouse-can-drink-not-more-than/) Chinese Proverbs > [You watched and you saw what happened and in the accumulation of episodes you saw the pattern: Daddy ruled the roost, called the shots,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-taylor-fleming/you-watched-and-you-saw-what-happened-and-in-the-accumulation-of/) [Anne Taylor Fleming](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-taylor-fleming/) > [Gipsies, who every ill can cure, Except the ill of being poor Who charms 'gainst love and agues sell, Who can in hen-roost set…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-churchill/gipsies-who-every-ill-can-cure-except-the-ill-of-being-poor-who/) [Charles Churchill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-churchill/) > [A gourmet can tell from the flavor whether a woodcock's leg is the one on which the bird is accustomed to roost.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lucius-beebe/a-gourmet-can-tell-from-the-flavor-whether-a-woodcock-s-leg-is-the/) [Lucius Beebe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lucius-beebe/) > [Were floods of tears to be unloosed In tribute to my grief, The doves of Noah ne'er had roost Nor found an olive-leaf.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcus-tullius-cicero/were-floods-of-tears-to-be-unloosed-in-tribute-to-my-grief-the-doves/) [Marcus Tullius Cicero](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcus-tullius-cicero/) ## More by Bryan Procter > [So mightiest powers buy deepest calms are fed, And sleep, how oft, in things that gentlest be!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bryan-procter/so-mightiest-powers-buy-deepest-calms-are-fed-and-sleep-how-oft-in/) [Bryan Procter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bryan-procter/) > [Most writers steal a good thing when they can, and when 'Tis safely got 'Tis worth the winning. The worst of 't is we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bryan-procter/most-writers-steal-a-good-thing-when-they-can-and-when-tis-safely-got/) [Bryan Procter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bryan-procter/) > [Where are Shakespeare's imagination, Bacon's learning, Galileo's dream? Where is the sweet fancy of Sidney, the airy spirit of Fletcher, and Milton's thought severe?…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bryan-procter/where-are-shakespeare-s-imagination-bacon-s-learning-galileo-s-dream/) [Bryan Procter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bryan-procter/) > [How silent are the winds!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bryan-procter/how-silent-are-the-winds/) [Bryan Procter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bryan-procter/) > [I 'm on the sea! I 'm on the sea! I am where I would ever be, With the blue above and the blue…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bryan-procter/i-m-on-the-sea-i-m-on-the-sea-i-am-where-i-would-ever-be-with-the/) [Bryan Procter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bryan-procter/) > [Up and down! Up and down! 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Without a mark, without a bound, It runneth the earth's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bryan-procter/the-sea-the-sea-the-open-sea-the-blue-the-fresh-the-ever-free-without/) [Bryan Procter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bryan-procter/) > [The sea! The sea! The open sea!, The blue, the fresh, the ever free!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bryan-procter/the-sea-the-sea-the-open-sea-the-blue-the-fresh-the-ever-free/) [Bryan Procter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bryan-procter/) > [I never was on the dull, tame shore, But I loved the great sea more and more.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bryan-procter/i-never-was-on-the-dull-tame-shore-but-i-loved-the-great-sea-more-and/) [Bryan Procter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bryan-procter/) > [Love can take what shape he pleases; and when once begun his fiery inroad in the soul, how vain the after knowledge which his…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bryan-procter/love-can-take-what-shape-he-pleases-and-when-once-begun-his-fiery/) [Bryan Procter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bryan-procter/) > [Half the ills we heard within our hearts are ills because we hoard them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bryan-procter/half-the-ills-we-heard-within-our-hearts-are-ills-because-we-hoard/) [Bryan Procter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bryan-procter/) > [Death is the tyrant of the imagination.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bryan-procter/death-is-the-tyrant-of-the-imagination/) [Bryan Procter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bryan-procter/) > [Enter upon thy paths, O year! Thy paths, which all who breathe must tread, Which lead the Living to the Dead, I enter; for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bryan-procter/enter-upon-thy-paths-o-year-thy-paths-which-all-who-breathe-must/) [Bryan Procter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bryan-procter/) [Explore all 29 Bryan Procter quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bryan-procter/) ## More Bird quotes > [And I have been very blessed, having coached some of the greatest that have ever played the game. But if I had to start…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/red-auerbach/and-i-have-been-very-blessed-having-coached-some-of-the-greatest-that/) [Red Auerbach](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/red-auerbach/) > [Some minds corrode and grow inactive under the loss of personal liberty; others grow morbid and irritable; but it is the nature of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/washington-irving/some-minds-corrode-and-grow-inactive-under-the-loss-of-personal/) [Washington Irving](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/washington-irving/) > [Set the bird's wings with gold and it will never again soar in thesky.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/set-the-bird-s-wings-with-gold-and-it-will-never-again-soar-in-thesky/) [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) > [“He unfixes the metal notch and slips his hand around the body of the bird. Feels its heat, its small heart beating. He stares…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nina-schuyler/he-unfixes-the-metal-notch-and-slips-his-hand-around-the-body-of-the/) Nina Schuyler > [I would rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach 10,000 stars how not to dance.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/e-e-cummings/i-would-rather-learn-from-one-bird-how-to-sing-than-to-teach-10-000/) [e. e. cummings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/e-e-cummings/) > [Can you imagine any better example of divine creative accomplishment that the consummate flying machine that is a bird? 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The familiar surroundings…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-hardy/meanwhile-the-trees-were-just-as-green-as-before-the-birds-sang-and/) [Thomas Hardy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-hardy/) > [When they started to drain a swamp where birds and fish had lived, for a new housing development down the road from his apartment,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/maile-meloy/when-they-started-to-drain-a-swamp-where-birds-and-fish-had-lived-for/) [Maile Meloy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/maile-meloy/) > [The bird with the thorn in its breast, it follows an immutable law; it is driven by it knows not what to impale itself,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colleen-mccullough/the-bird-with-the-thorn-in-its-breast-it-follows-an-immutable-law-it/) [Colleen McCullough](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colleen-mccullough/) > [Real like sucks the life out of losers. if you want to fuck with the eagles, you must learn how to fly.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/real-like-sucks-the-life-out-of-losers-if-you-want-to-fuck-with-the/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“If we studied birds ,maybe we could learn to be free.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/benjamin-alire-s-enz/if-we-studied-birds-maybe-we-could-learn-to-be-free/) [Benjamin Alire Sáenz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/benjamin-alire-s-enz/) [Browse all 4,802 Bird quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bird/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "In the hollow tree, in the old gray tower, The spectral Owl doth dwell; Dull, hated, despised, in the sunshine hour, But at the dusk--he's abroad and well! 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