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Difficulty: MediumPersonification and Anthropomorphism

Read the following lines from Emily Dickinson's poem "The Sky is low – the Clouds are mean" (1890):

The Sky is low – the Clouds are mean –
A Travelling Flake of Snow
Across a Barn or through a Rut
Debates if it will go –

A Narrow Wind complains all Day
How some one treated him
Nature, like Us is sometimes caught
Without her Diadem –

In the second stanza, the personification of the wind and Nature serves primarily to accomplish which of the following?

  1. A
    document the speaker's personal resentment toward the harshness of the winter landscape.
  2. B
    describe the literal meteorological changes that occur during a severe winter storm.
  3. C
    establish a sequence of auditory imagery that identifies the wind as a personified character.
  4. suggest that the natural world, like humanity, is subject to periods of vulnerability and diminished majesty.Answer
  5. E
    illustrate a sudden shift from the speaker's initial optimism to a state of absolute despair.

Answer

The personification of the wind and Nature suggests that the natural world, like humanity, is subject to periods of vulnerability and diminished majesty.
The correct option correctly identifies the function of personifying nature. By describing the wind as complaining of how it was treated and Nature as being caught without her crown ('Diadem'), the poem explicitly draws a parallel between human imperfection ('like Us') and nature's own unglamorous days. This comparison shows that nature shares humanity's capacity for vulnerability, pettiness, and lack of dignity.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the details of personification attributed to the wind and Nature in the second stanza.
The wind is personified as a 'complaining' figure feeling mistreated, and Nature is personified as being caught 'Without her Diadem' (crown).
This establishes how human emotions and social positions (dignity/royalty represented by a diadem) are projected onto natural elements.
2
Evaluate the significance of the phrase 'like Us' in connecting the personification to the poem's theme.
The phrase explicitly links human vulnerability and imperfection with Nature's unglamorous state.
Analyzing the direct comparison allows the reader to understand that the personification functions to bridge the human experience with the natural landscape.
3
Connect the function of the personification to the overall meaning of the stanza.
The personification shows that nature is not always sublime or majestic; it, too, has days of pettiness, vulnerability, and lack of dignity.
Synthesizing the device's function yields the correct thematic interpretation of a shared vulnerability between nature and humanity.

Key Concept

Analyzing the thematic function and effect of personification in poetry.
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Topics

Personification and Anthropomorphism

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