"A Visit From St. Nicholas," by Clement Clarke Moore, is
also known to many as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas." Published in 1823, it has
become a holiday standard, read to children on Christmas Eve in preparation of Santa's
visit. The poem is written in couplets, with a rhyme scheme of aa bb, etc. Several
literary devices are employed. In this example, personification is
used.
href="http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms_P.html">Personification is a
form of figurative language whereby human characteristics are given to non-human things.
For example, personification is used to describe leaves that "skip" down a road or
daffodils "raising their heads" to the sun. This device provides a clearer mental image
of the item being described, and is a device very often used in poetry. In the following
example from "A Visit From St. Nicholas," the moon and snow are being
discussed.
The
moon on the breast of the new-fallen snowGave the lustre
of mid-day to objects
below...
In order to
understand what is being personified, it is best to try to put the quotation into
standard, modern English to better understand the meaning of the line. I.e., we need to
understand what is being said before we can be sure what is being given human
characteristics. The lines shown above state that the moon is reflecting off of the
newly fallen snow, creating an illusion that the items below have a luster or shine from
that reflection. Having done this, we can more easily ascertain what is being
personified. This centers around one question: what does "breast" applies to—the moon or
the snow?
Looking at the quote within the context
of the entire statement, we find that "the breast" refers to "the snow," with
the use of the word "of." We could translate the line to
read:
The moon
[shining] on the breast of the new-fallen
snow...
The description does
not refer to the breast of the moon, but the breast of the new snow, from which the glow
or luster below comes. So your answer is that
snow is being personified
here.
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