Personification In 'The Sky Is Low, The Clouds Are Mean'

Emily Dickinson’s poem, “The Sky is low--the Clouds are mean” is a lyrical poem that depicts nature through a non-traditional perspective. While nature in poetry is often portrayed as being beautiful, peaceful, and essentially flawless, in this poem Dickinson intends for the audience to view nature from a different perspective. The entirety of the poem follows with a sad, dull tone while describing nature on a cold, windy, and cloudy day. Dickinson is careful to emulate aspects of a cloudy day to the facets of human life including snowflakes, the wind, and Mother Nature herself. The personification utilized in Emily Dickinson’s “The Sky is low--the Clouds are mean” is essential to helping the reader understand that nature and humans are connected through their shared imperfections.
In order to fully understand Emily Dickinson’s poetry, it is imperative to look at her background as an author. Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts. …show more content…
One part of the poem where personification is used to depict nature as full of imperfections is when Dickinson introduces the snowflake. As said in the poem, “A Travelling Flake of Snow Across a Barn or through a Rut Debates if it will go” (Dickinson 680). The snowflake, in this case, is shown to have the human-like characteristic of being indecisive. While snowflakes are clearly inanimate objects and, therefore, do not have the conscious ability to make decisions, Dickinson shows that as snowflakes fall from the sky, they are unable to choose where they land just as humans do not always get to choose their path in life. In this case, the personification used here portrays the connection between humans and nature. The audience is reminded that nature, just like humans, isn’t always certain of its decisions or what will happen