On the Train by Gillian Clarke, Patrolling Barnegat by Walt Whitman, and the Storm on the Island by Seamus Heane

Personification is used to show what nonhuman objects or things are doing. Connell uses it to tell his readers what a boat’s wake is really representing. He writes, “...the wash from the speeding yacht slapped him in the face” (Connell 19). He wanted to portray that Rainsford was not able to speak or shout at the boat to get anyone's attention.

The next stylistic device is personification. By definition personification is to think of or represent as having human qualities or life. Woolf applies this device to

Whitman takes the idea of using parts of nature as unique symbols and transfers this idea into humanity. More specifically, Whitman is able to go beyond Emerson's idea of nature as a symbol and make humans symbols. Most obvious is the way that Whitman uses himself as a symbol of all of humanity. He sees the ideas of humanity coming from him and states, "Through me many long dumb voices…Through me forbidden voices,"(Whitman Section 24 Line 12 & 20). He says that he is a "kosmos" - or he is a universe,

However, a poem could be written without personification and still be great. In this poem the speaker states, “season when the young buttercups and daisies climb up on the mulched bodies of their forebears to wave their flags in the parade” (1096). This stanza is personification because it talks about the buttercups and daisies climbing up. This line of the poem also reminds the reader of soldiers marching in a parade.

For all of its awkwardness Whitman’s poem is vibrant and a joy to read, with a dictionary close at hand. He makes the steam driven locomotive come to life on the page with the “ponderous side-bars, parallel and connecting rods, gyrating” (Whitman line 5) you can see the metal violently swinging back and forth. When he describes the thick, purple hazed, smoke rising from the machine one can almost feel the oily vapors on the face and nostrils. As the “warning ringing bell … sounds (sic) its notes” the reader can’t help but hear it in the distance, and at the end as the machine “Launch’d o’er the praries wide, across the lakes, To the free skies unpent and glad and strong” (Whitman lines 24-25) the same reader can glimpse the ghost train gliding into the sunset.

Question 2 Two lines that are examples of personification in the poem potsu-potsu by Lily Roland are ‘heralding the dashing downpour’ and the groaning bridge struggles to stand tall and strong’. This is used in the first line where it says heralding and dashing as rain dose not dash and thunder dose not herald. In the second line it can be seen when it says groaning bridge as a bridge dose not groan. The use of personification

The poets use personification to create a message about nature in the poems "Earth is a Living Thing," by Lucille Clifton "Sleeping

As the speaker sits in an auditorium, they observe the lecturer’s many notes, “When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, / When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,” (lines 2-3). This line provides strong visual imagery of complex investigations in astronomy, and a reader can easily imagine a full lecture room with endless notes and charts which aids in providing the mind-numbing mood of the experience. Moreover, the repetitions of what are essentially synonyms in this context make these lines sound like the rambles of the astronomer, contributing to the tone. As the speaker tires of the lecture, he leaves the room and “In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, / Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars” (lines 8-9). Here Whitman again employs imagery to make the night seem appealing and

The author uses imagery in the poem to enable the reader to see what the speaker sees. For example, in lines 4-11 the speaker describes to us the

Water is something that is seen as solely necessary for human beings to stay hydrated, but the novels being mentioned in this paper describe water as being something more. Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall, Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat and Masters of the Dew by Jacques Roumain all depict water as being something that helps with liberation, recovery and new life.

Imagery is present throughout Walt Whitman’s Song Of Myself (-----). Whitman is able to draw the reader into the text and ground the abstract ideas back to the readers by appealing to a range of senses. Whitman also uses visual, tactile, auditory and olfactory to imagery give a sense of reality to the setting.

The mood of this poem is fearful, and the impression I get from reading is somewhat scary and anxious. The author uses figurative language to describe it. To begin with, Pat Mora uses personification. She writes, “With thorns, she scratches on my window, tosses her hair dark with rain.” Another example that helps the mood, the author compares a tornado personified into a woman.

Whitman begins by creating a contradictory image of himself. On one hand he relays an egotistical representation by alluding that he is the center of the universe, "a kosmos, of Manhattan the son," almost a deistic type of character. Whitman also describes himself as not being above any one person, woman or man, an obvious contradiction to his previous representation. His God-like persona is depicted in human terms, physical qualities that all humans possess. Whitman creates this contradiction to show his belief that he is everything, but is only this way because everything is a part of him. He represents himself as part of a whole&emdash;nature, mankind, and the universe are all a part of him. By being everything in nature and nature being a part of him, Whitman has the power to become the voice of nature as a whole. He speaks for nature and mankind when they do not possess the power to do so. Whitman is the voice of all.

Whitman has a philosophical approach about religion, religion practices and the journey of the soul. He uses the imagery of nature and other every day attributes to question life beyond death, rebirth and the unison of individual and nature. He is not afraid to die and admits ".... there is really no death, /and if ever there was it led toward life" (Whitman line…. )He finds the Devine power in nature and everything around him rather that in the altar of a church, which

The speaker states, “Rise up – for you the flag is flung- for you the bugle trills” (line 10). This is interpreted as the ending of the war due to the patriotic symbolism of the flag which stands for freedom and also victory. Within this stanza, the importance of the captain is now extended from just the speaker to all those who await the ship’s arrival. This is demonstrated as the speaker states, “For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning” (lines 11-12). The joyful tone of the stanza ceases towards the end as an unexpected downfall of emotions begins. Whitman uses repetition in lines 15 and 16 when he states “It is some dream that on the deck, / You’ve fallen cold and dead” (lines 15-16). This serves as a disturbing reminder that the figure which was most significant to the entire situation is no longer alive.