Comparison in the Uses of Apostrophe & Personification in Shelley's

A detailed Summary of Comparison in the Uses of Apostrophe & Personification in Shelley's

Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem, "Ode to the West Wind" and Sylvia Plath's poem "Mirror" both employ the poetic tools of apostrophe, the address to something that is intangible, and personification, the application of human characteristics to something inanimate. However, they form a paradox in the usage of these tools through the imagery they create. Both poets have breathed life into inanimate objects, however death and aging are the prominent themes within both of these works.

In "Ode to the West Wind", Shelley personifies many of nature's elements by attaching descriptions of remains of death that are typically human. He begins the poem with a simile by comparing the autumn leaves to ghosts. Though leaves are in fact, living things, the term "ghost" implies a spirit or presence from a living being who has passed on. To become a ghost, it is necessary to have a soul and this is specific to humans and other mammals. Shelley uses the idea of giving a soul to an inanimate object in the second stanza of his poem as well. In the fourth line, he uses angels as a metaphor for decaying leaves. Here, the reader is compelled to envision spirit beings falling from the sky with the rain and lightning. In another area of the poem whe

While Shelley's poem contains elements of the personification of various inanimate items, Sylvia Plath's poem "Mirror", is written entirely in this form. The speaker of the poem is the mirror itself. Plath utilizes the idea of applying more emotional characteristics to this object than did Shelley. In the fourth line of the poem, the mirror claims that it is "not cruel, only truthful". Obviously, honesty is a trait specific to humans, however Plath gives the reader an opportunity to make a decision for themselves about the alleged intentions of a mirror. When faced with one's image within it, one is forced to acknowledge the inevitable display of age that a mirror reflects. Thus, the mirror can provoke emotion from he or she if the image is unfavorable and therefore deem the mirror as cruel.

As the poem progresses, Shelley puts a new twist on the idea of personification. Or, more accurately, Shelley reverses the idea of personification by attaching inanimate qualities to the person speaking in apostrophe form to the west wind. In the fifth stanza of the poem, the second line asks, "what if my leaves are falling like its own" (Charters, p. 872). Here, the reader imagines the speaker as a tree himself. Still, Shelley applies aspects of human dissolution to inanimate objects where the speaker avers that he or she's thoughts are dead in the seventh line. In this line, the speaker has surrendered the idea of he or she's metamorphosis into a tree, but still compares their thoughts to "withered leaves" (Charters, p. 872)

Finally, in the fourth to last line of the poem, the speaker asks that their thoughts be "scatter(ed) as from an

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Approximate Word count = 1115
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English