Sunday, December 2, 2007

Personification

Personification is defined in the Norton Anthology as the attribution of human qualities to nonhuman forces or objects. Byron makes use of personification in his poem “Darkness.” He personifies war in the lines “And War, which for a moment was no more / Did glut himself again” (38-39).

Wordsworth rejects personification as a mechanical device, stating in his “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” that “such personifications do not make any natural or regular part” of the “language of men.” The romantic poets attempted to use language that was commonly used in England as opposed to writing in the elevated style of neoclassical poets.

Julie Menezes

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