Saturday, 25 October 2008

What is an example of personification in Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay, "Nature"?

is the attribution of human qualities to something which
is not human. In chapter 1, Emerson states that

never
wears a mean appearance. Neither does the wisest man extort her secret, and lose his curiosity
by finding out all her perfection.

First, Emerson gives
Nature the ability to "wear" a certain kind of appearance. He also gives Nature the
ability to keep a secret and to be a "her"; Emerson says that Nature keeps her own
secrets, even when investigated by the wisest of men.

Also in chapter 1,
Emerson claims that

The greatest delight which the fields
and woods minister, is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am
not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me, and I to them.


Here, he personifies the vegetables, giving them the ability to have a kind of
relationship with human beings, and even to nod at or acknowledge a person. He insists that
there is some hidden relationship between...

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