This Penlighten post attempts to explain this popular literary term. Marriage is ephemeral; an intellectual construct—it can neither be happy or unhappy because a marriage is not capable of having emotions. Get access risk-free for 30 days, Because transferred epithets provide a vehicle for metaphoric language, writers often employ them to infuse their works with vivid imagery as the following examples show: Wodehouse, whose work also includes many other effective uses of grammar and sentence structure, transfers his meditative feeling to the foot he is soaping. credit-by-exam regardless of age or education level. She wrote a story for school and in it, a husband and wife were fighting a lot.

- Definition & Meaning, 12th Grade English: Homework Help Resource, Biological and Biomedical jocund company – It is the poet who is feeling happy or jocund, not the daffodils. Top School in Virginia Beach for IT Degrees, Bachelor of Science in Business Administration: IT Degree Overview, Information Technology Schools and Colleges: How to Choose, IT Networking Degree and Certificate Program Overviews, Best Master's Degrees for Information Technology, Universities Offering Distance Education IT & Management Programs, Bachelor of Science in Information Technology: Online Degree, Online IT Management Degrees by Program Level, Top University in Reno for a Psychology Degree, Career Information for Becoming a Clinical Assistant, Top School in Philadelphia with Securities Law Courses, Online Masters Degree in Clinical Research Program Info, Online Bachelors Degree in Food and Beverage Management, Master of Science in Computer Science Online Degree, Distance Learning Creative Writing Degree, Online Doctorate of Education Program Options, British Prose for 12th Grade: Homework Help, British Poetry for 12th Grade: Homework Help, British Plays for 12th Grade: Homework Help, Works by African American Writers: Homework Help, American Prose for 12th Grade: Homework Help, American Drama for 12th Grade: Homework Help. Sciences, Culinary Arts and Personal ThoughtCo uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. Sign up to receive the latest and greatest articles from our site automatically each week (give or take)...right to your inbox. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We provide informative and helpful articles about the newest fiction and nonfiction books on the market that you can come back to again and again when you have the urge for a new book to dig into. This offers two examples of personification in one line: the morning smiling and the night frowning. The same would go for another common phrase, “I had a sleepless night”.

This is also a personification, where the crowns are given the quality of anger. A personification, on the other hand, means assigning the quality of a living being, such as actions, speech, or emotions, to an inanimate object. imaginable degree, area of In a transfered epithet the adjective is transfered from a person to an object. An epithet is defined as an adverb or adjective (or a phrase including either), which changes or modifies any noun. They are both stuck in an unhappy marriage. This is an example of personification because shadows don't literally tremble, but people do. “Even just the bewildering minute counts; you have to give yourself up.” – T.S. A transferred epithet, as explained above, is the transfer of a modifier from one noun to another. - Definition & Examples, Point of View: First, Second & Third Person, Narrators in Literature: Types and Definitions, What is Foreshadowing? It enhances the effect that a sentence can have on the reader, and gives a certain ring to it. winged sounds of whirling – The wings are making the whirling sound.

It's not the minute that is bewildering, but rather, it's Eliot who feels that the criticism is bewildering and likely unwarranted. To help Nina and Sarah resolve their argument, let's take a closer look at both transferred epithet and personification.

She looked at him through concerned eyes.

Eliot employs a transferred epithet to make his feelings clear: Eliot is expressing his vexation, probably to criticism of him or some of his works. We hope you are enjoying Penlighten! These cookies do not store any personal information.

However, there is some basic difference between the two.

The bars merely serve to foster the person's cruel intentions.

But that leaves Nina wondering what, exactly, a transferred epithet is. Get the unbiased info you need to find the right school. But before we declare Nina is right, let's look at transferred epithets to see if her friend Sarah might be right. Don’t lean over such a terrifying height. In his play Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare wrote, 'The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night.' Can a night be sleepless? A personification, on the other hand, means assigning the quality of a living being, such as actions, speech, or emotions, to an inanimate object. Elliot, “…. In the next line, "silence" cannot be discreet.

rubs everything that can be rubbed, until it shines, like her own honest forehead, with perpetual friction.” – Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, “As I sat in the bath tub, soaping a meditative foot and singing, if I remember correctly, ‘Pale Hands I Loved Beside the Shalimar,’…” – P.G. Here again, the night was not sleepless, you were. Indeed, it was he who was feeling meditative, not his foot. Not really; the journey in the boat is fatal, but its doom has been transferred from the trip to the shore. The place where this happens is called a 'fatal shore.'