Lines 299-304 Virgil Personification Analysis

In lines 299-304 Virgil comments on the time of year where the farmers are finally able to enjoy the rewards of their hard work. Virgil uses personification when he refers to winter since it is winter that brings times of restfulness and idleness, unties cares from the farmers, and invites festivities to the otherwise dull agricultural life. This personification it is obviously seen since hiems is in the nominative case in lines 299 and 302 and it is the main subject throughout these lines. It is also interesting to note that when the agricolae are the subject they have a passive and an active verb, while hiems appears with only active verbs (invitat and resolvit). Another instance where Virgil’s use of personification appears in line 302 when the adjective genialis is used to describe winter. One of the available translations for …show more content…
As previously discussed, sailing has a direct link with poetry and we can interpret this scene as an allegory to poetry. First of all, winter is a time of ignava, which appears to have a very negative connotation since some of its translations are: sluggish, without spirit, laziness. On the one hand, poets are associated with leisure and idleness, in this note we can interpret the sailing metaphor to represent the triumphs and accomplishments both agriculture and poetry have. In these lines Virgil encourages and praises the season where the farmers regain their strength and consume their produce while paralleling it to poetry; however this relaxing and tranquil tone quickly disappears in the following lines since he reminds the farmers about the tasks needed during winter. Overall Virgil seems to suggest that idleness makes the farmers happy and if the farmers are happy, the crops will be bountiful too. Nonetheless there is always an impeding and external force that is beyond their