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Emily Dickinson Personification

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Death is a natural part of life. Emily Dickinson highlights this fact in her poem, “Apparently With No Surprise”, through the use of personification. In this poem, Dickinson personifies the flower, the frost, and the sun to display the poem’s main theme of death. The flower is described as being happy, the frost as an assassin, and the sun as unmoved. Through this use of personification, Dickinson works to show how death is natural, and how it is not a cruel force, no matter how much it may seem so to those who live.

One example of personification in this poem is when Dickinson writes, “Apparently with no surprise/ To any happy Flower” (Dickinson, ll. 1-2). In this instance, the object being personified is a flower. Dickinson applies the …show more content…

Emily Dickinson highlights this fact in her poem, “Apparently With No Surprise”, through the use of personification. The flower is personified by being described as happy, showing that no matter how innocent an object may be, it is not exempt from the cycle of death. It also shows how death does not pick and choose its victims based on character or deeds, merely by random chance and circumstance. The frost is personified through the action of playing and accidently beheading the flower, and also when it is described as being an assassin. This shows that, while death may seem cruel and harsh, the natural force itself is not malevolent—it is simply playing its part in the cycle of life and death. The sun is personified by being described as unmoved despite the atrocities committed below, further perpetuating the idea that death is not malevolent because it cannot feel. The sun is also seen melting the frost, supporting the idea of death as a natural part of life. The personification of sun also shows how everything has a part to play in continuing the cycle of death. Through her use of personification, Dickinson works to show how death is not cruel, no matter how much it may seem so to those living. Death is simply a natural part of life. In fact, it is the only part of life that is a guarantee. After all, living is a privilege. Death is a

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