and this The budding twigs spread out their fan To catch the breezy air; And I must think, do cll I can, That there was pleasure there. In fact, the Nature interest of Wordsworth is for the most part mingled with human thought and feeling. Hence, in the Ode on Immortality,' he bursts forth- Thanks to the human heart by which we live, But, apart from such interest in nature, a bold personification needs strong feeling to support it, as in these examples. Browning thus represents the feelings of a lady whose honour has been assailed, when a champion suddenly steps forward to vindicate her cause : North, South, East, West, I looked. The lie was dead, A lover serenading his mistress, and receiving no response, is made by the same poet to speak thus Oh, how dark your villa was, Windows fast and obdurate! The There is dramatic propriety in thus representing strong feeling as interpreting nature in harmony with itself. play of fancy in the last line carries the principle to its extreme length. The same dramatic propriety leads to the combination of Hyperbole with Personification in the expression of love. For example, in 'Maud' The slender acacia would not shake One long milk-bloom on the tree; The white lake-blossom fell into the lake, As the pimpernel dozed on the lea; But the rose was awake all night for your sake, Knowing your promise to me; The lilies and roses were all awake, They sighed for the dawn and thee. DEGREE OF SIMILARITY. 25 The personifications of intense sorrow may be seen abundantly in Shelley's Adonais'. . 3. Second. The amount of similarity, as compared with the diversity, must be enough to justify the departure from actual fact. The personifying process, being a case of similitude, is subject to the laws formerly laid down for Figures of Similarity. Great disparity or irrelevance is hostile to the success of the operation. There is a conflict between the avidity of the mind for the emotional effect and the repugnance caused by the accompanying unlikeness. In the sustained Personification of Wordsworth's 'Ode to Duty,' the similarity is occasionally vague. ample: Thou dost preserve the Stars from wrong; For ex And the most ancient Heavens through Thee are fresh and strong. In Ossian, Personification is often used with insufficient basis of resemblance: as-'Rise, Moon, thou daughter of the sky, look from between thy clouds'. The effect of the sun beating on a rider during a desperate ride, is thus expressed by Browning: The broad sun above laughed a pitiless laugh. The similarity, though not great, is fitting, and the personification appropriate. As with other similitudes, less of actual resemblance is demanded, provided some striking effect is gained by the personification. Thus Keats says of the nightingale :— She sings but to her love, nor e'er conceives 4. Third. The effect is favoured by a measured comparison with human might. When the great impersonal powers-as the ocean, the rivers, the winds, earthquakes-come into comparison or collision with human beings singly or collectively, and establish their vast superiority, the feeling of might is more strongly brought home to our minds. It is this effect that Byron works up in the stanzas on the Ocean. There is personification throughout, and comparison is sustained by such touches as this: Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain'. 5. Fourth. Climax. Much is gained by Succession to a The influence of great qualities is enhanced by their being presented as the highest term of a succession, proceeding by gradual increase. The effect of a mountain height depends upon the number of intermediate heights that lead up to it. The following, from Shelley, shows the climactic arrangement: Yet I endure. I ask the earth, have not the mountains felt? 6. In order to put these conditions further to the test, we have to distinguish between the two modes or degrees of Personification. I. The ascription of feelings and will, together with distinction of gender. This is seen at its highest pitch in Hebrew poetry. For example: 'The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands'. The whole earth is at rest and is quiet; they break forth before thee into singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come against us.' The opening chapter of the Lamentations of Jeremiah abounds in personification of the boldest kind: How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks,' &c. This is to substitute a people collectively for an individual, and is not a great departure from literality, while the intensity of the emotion justifies the boldness of the figure. The highest pitch is reached in such passages as the first of these, representing the hills singing and the trees clapping their hands. To take such a licence supposes an extreme and exuberant outburst of joy. HIGHEST FORM OF THE EFFECT. 27 Shelley's 'Ode to the West Wind,' 'The Sensitive Plant' and The Cloud' are examples of bold personification sustained throughout. The 'Cloud' is the most coherent; but it passes from pure personification to ingenious tracing of cause and effect, expressed in highly poetic phrase : I sift the snow on the mountains below, And their great pines groan aghast. The literal and the metaphorical are here mixed up together, and the proper personality is not developed. We sympathize with the effects so described, and regard them as indications of some internal power, but what we feel is a surprise of causation, rather than an inspiration of personal might. There is a greater approach to the personifying effect in such lines as : And all the night 'tis my pillow white, As I sleep in the arms of the blast. This is poetical, or nothing; it is different from the mere garnishing of a physical sequence. Tennyson's Talking Oak' is equally devoid of the quality of personification. It is simply a device for bringing out the lover's feelings in dramatic form; a pillar, or other commanding object, would have equally suited the purpose. The oak is personified poetically, when its parts of resemblance to humanity (remote though they be) are so expressed as to recall human qualities-erectness, branching arms, resistance to the elements, endurance, gnarled robustness. It will be seen that personification does not consist in making insentient objects perform all the minute actions of men or animals, but in the seizing of such features as have a real likeness to the human form, energies and expression-the moan of the sea, the sigh of the wind, the dash of the cataract. It flourishes better on passing allusion than on detailed description: although the modern nature poets, as contrasted with the ancients, have worked the interest to a great degree of minuteness. 7. Besides natural objects, personification is largely extended to Abstractions. The abstract notions-Life, Death, Love, Anger, Friendship, Religion, Knowledge, Virtue, Liberty, Wisdom, Genius, Hope, Pleasure, Evil-lend themselves to personification, in consequence of their being attributes of human beings. They derive a slight touch of vivacity by being regarded as persons. The occasion must admit of an elated strain of feeling; not more, however, than is habitual to poetry. Can Wisdom lend with all her boasted power? Let not Ambition mock their useful toil. Begone dull Care. When leagued Oppression poured to northern wars. We have already seen the double effect of brevity and concentration on what is essential, arising from the employment of abstract terms for the corresponding concrete (See FIGURES OF SIMILARITY, p. 184.) The same advantages accrue by the still higher flight of personification. The same effect may be produced with abstractions taken from attributes of the lower animals. For example : Amid the roses, fierce repentance rears Her snaky crest. In Collins's 'Ode to the Passions,' the selection of attributes are very much at random; but the detailed effects of each are more tersely given by the abstract form, and the delineation falls easily under the personal treatment. Time, Eternity, Force, Night, Space, Immensity,—are farther removed from persons than the foregoing; yet, under circumstances that justify the bolder figures, they can be personified with effect. The vastness of the conceptions that they include causes them to take rank with the loftiest agencies of the world, and they enter largely into the vocabulary of the Sublime, Milton's 'Hail, Holy Light,' is not strictly an abstraction. It personifies the most elevated of the powers of Nature. Heat and Magnetism might be equally personified, if they inspired the same intensity of emotion. In the aspect of fire, Heat is associated with devastating and destructive power, and in that capacity rises to personification. Fire-worship is a form of religion. The effective use of personification to give vividness to abstract ideas, may be studied in 'L'Allegro' and 'Il Penseroso'. Melancholy, Darkness, Care, Laughter, Liberty, Night, Morn, Sleep,—are some of the ideas thus personified. On the other hand, the practice of personifying abstractions |