Personification
English Lit: AQA GCSE Poetry - Power & Conflict, topic 4.1.2
Personification of the Weather
The weather is personified throughout to make it sound menacing and deadly. This also characterises the weather as the real enemy of the soldiers. Here are some examples of personification of the weather:
“Our brains ache in the merciless iced east winds that knive us”
- The sibilance also highlights the intensity of the pain and the brutality of the weather.
“Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow”
- Nature is presented as more damaging and deadly than the bullets.
“Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces”
- The consonance (repetition of consonant sounds) here reflects the ferocity of the weather.
Dawn and Soldiers
Dawn is personified in these lines: “Dawn amassing in the East her melancholy army / Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey.” These lines are important. Here's an analysis:
Contradiction
- Dawn, usually associated with ideas of light and hope, is here hostile and brings even more suffering.
Colour imagery
- The colour imagery “grey” conveys ideas of despair and boredom.
Military vocabulary
- “Ranks” is a military term and is repeated, reminding the reader that the weather is the soldiers’ enemy.
Test yourself on Personification
Which of these is NOT an example of personification of the weather in Exposure?
Which of these quotes is personifying Dawn?
Which techniques are used in the lines personifying Dawn?