Personification(2)


 * Personification:** When an inanimate object or idea is described as having lifelike and/or human qualities.

__Example in Frosts Works:__ Tree at my window, window tree, My sash is lowered when night comes on; But let there never be curtain drawn Between you and me. Vague dream-head lifted out of the ground, And thing next most diffuse to cloud, Not all your light tongues talking aloud Could be profound. But tree, I have seen you taken and tossed, And if you have seen me when I slept, You have seen me when I was taken and swept And all but lost. That day she put our heads together, Fate had her imagination about her, Your head so much concerned with outer, Mine with inner, weather.

In this poem Frost personifies the tree in order to give it a human conscience, “Your head so much concerned with outer, mine with inner, weather. This enables the poet to connect with the tree, to contemplate their “companionship.” How the tree is ‘taken and tossed,’ much like the poet turns and tosses when they sleep. In the end, the poet compares their thoughts with the tree. Concluding that thought the both are concerned with weather, the poet suffers an inner emotional weather, while the tree only suffers literal weather. It’s as if there is a realization that the tree does not have a conscience, but is a companion none-the-less.

__Example in Shakespeare’s Works:__ O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with these butchers! Thou art the ruins of the noblest man That ever lived in the tide of times.

In this extract, Shakespeare personifies the ground as living, and bleeding. This is done in order to show the extent of the death that is happening. It implies that the ground is bleeding through death, and that the ground is covered with blood.