Personification In The Ocean By Nathaniel Hawthorne

American poet Nathaniel Hawthorne had changed his last name by adding the “w”. His original last name was Harthorne but wanted to separate himself from his family because his father was a judge in the Salem trials. Hawthorne lived in a time where authors did not put pictures in their writings. Due to this Hawthorne wrote very detailed and descriptive poems. By using very detailed and descriptive writing ways he was able to capture the roughness of life in his poem “The Ocean”. He did this by using imagery, personification, and rhyming.
One way Hawthorne wrote very detailed poems was by using imagery. When authors use imagery it helps the reader be able to visualize what is going on and what he visualizes while he is writing. One use of imagery in the poem is “Though there be fury on the waves” (2). Hawthorne’s use of imagery in this line shows how rough the ocean waves are at the time. Another way Hawthorne incorporated imagery is “Calmly the wearied seamen rest” (5). This line gives you the ability to visualize how stressed the seamen were when the ocean was very rough, and then how when the ocean was not as though they were able to calm down and rest. …show more content…
Personification is when an author gives abiotic things human characteristics. Using personification gives more emphasis as to what the abiotic thing is doing. Personification is used in the line; “Though there be fury on the waves” (2). Ocean waves can not have any emotion and fury is an emotion. Personification in this line gives the reader more of an emphasis on the rough ocean waters. The author wrote; “The earth has guilt, the earth has care” (13). This line makes it seem as though the Earth had rough weather conditions and it is guilty about it. The Earth can not feel emotions, but the line shows that the ocean had calmed