In the poem Shadow by Jane Urquhart, the sun is personified to reveal the significance of this element of nature through the development of it rising everyday and the task of waking a human being. The author develops stages the sun rises in the morning to make it evident that there is a final objection. She also refers to the sun ashe? to emphasize its importance. The sun plays the major role of beginning the day and starting a new year. Jane Urquhart uses the objects in a house owned by a human to play down the human’s values.
If it were not for the sun rising each day, there would be no life. The sun in this poem is personified into a human being by referring to the light it produces ashe? and making it as if a person was waking up the day. The light goes about waking the inanimate objects in the house whenhe polished your tables? (l 19). This is the way the table is woken up and ready for the day.
The author writes the areas in which the light affects in a sequential order until it wakes up the person. It starts toenter from the garden? (l 12), continues through the house bymoving on the carpet? l 3) and completes its task byburning at the flesh of your neck? (l 26). By having the cycle in this order, the sun can be seen as a person who completed the task of waking up another person. Personification is used over and over in this poem to emphasize the task the sun has on its hands. By personifying the sun, it is easier to recognize how important the role of the sun is in initiating the day.
Having human values being taken over by the light and heat of the sun develops its significance. When the sunmoves his arms across/your memories/substituting light/heat and silence? l 7-10), it is playing down the value you have on the pictures that are on your dresser. The light skims across your value and replaces the importance you put on it (memories) with its own heat.
In the same way, the sun’s importance is stressed whenhe erases last year’s/conversations with the stars? (l 11&12). From these lines, the role of the sun is seen as a crucial part in one year going forward to the next. After a year has gone by, regardless of what issues or setbacks may have occurred, the sun must wipeout everything and start its cycle all over.
This once again replaces human values with the role of the sun. As well, authority is given to the sun when itdecides to/enter from the garden? (l 1-2). It gives the sun the initiative to decide to begin its process and therefore it is in control over the day. The sun has the ability to end anything of large or small magnitude either on a daily basis or a yearly basis by rising in the morning. By recognizing the role the sun plays, we are able to see one of its finished tasks- the waking of a human. The waking is built up by the actions that take place before the person awakes.
The suntouches all your furniture/crawls under your closet door/investigates your wardrobe? (l 3-6). This is evidence that the sun is actually looking for something to influence and has to go through the house in order to reach a human. Clearly the person is lying in a bed through almost the entire poem because if the sunstops burning/at the flesh of your neck? (l 25-26), it would indicate that the neck is the only part of the body exposed to the sun. Therefore, a person is lying in a bed with covers to their neck.
It is evident that the individual is awake after the sun has reached them because it says,you are the only shadow in the room? (l 27). At this point, the person is standing because in order for a shadow to be created, the sun must be hitting the human from above while they are vertical with a surface. In this poem, the sun has completed one of its tasks of waking up a human being. The sun does this by allowing its heat and light to be placed on the individual. This poem can be summed up by a simple equation: light equals life.
Because of the sun’s important function, the world is able to begin each day starting with the sun rising. The personification used gives the sun and light meaning and importance by continually referring to the sun ashe? and having it complete human tasks. The cycle of the sun daily and yearly is stressed to show the crucial role the sun plays. One of the sun’s tasks is to wake up someone in the morning and this is apparent in the poem. Jane Urquhart shows us the importance of the sun through personification and the down play of human values.
