personification

literature

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Category: Arts & Culture

Related Topics:: figure of speech; euphemism; pathetic fallacy; trope

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personification, figure of speech in which human characteristics are attributed to an abstract quality, animal, or inanimate object. An example is “The Moon doth with delight / Look round her when the heavens are bare” (William Wordsworth, “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood,” 1807). Another is “Death lays his icy hand on kings” (James Shirley, “The Glories of Our Blood and State,” 1659). Personification has appeared in European poetry since ancient times, when Homer used it in the Iliad and the Odyssey. It is particularly common in allegory; for example, the medieval morality play Everyman (15th century) ...(100 of 151 words)

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