PERSONIFICATION - is a figure of speech that is used to attribute human characteristics to
something that is not human. It can also be used to personify an abstract quality.
Examples of Personification in Literature
1. In Sylvia Plath’s poem, Mirror
“I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful,”
2. In William Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
“The moon methinks looks with a watery eye;
And when she weeps, weeps every little flower,
Lamenting some enforced chastity”
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SYMBOLISM – is a literary device in which a writer uses one thing—usually a physical
object or phenomenon—to represent something more abstract. A strong symbol usually
shares a set of key characteristics with whatever it is meant to symbolize, or is related to
it in some other way. Characters and events can also be symbolic.
Examples of Symbolism in Literature
1. In Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference”
2. In Goerge Orwell’s novel, Animal Farm
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to
man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
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