A poet's tools

Open your book, Poorvi, at page 116 and look again at the shape of 'The Winner'. On page 119 your book shows two things the poet, Georgia Heard, has done.

FIRST: in the part where the children run so fast, the poet puts just one word on each line. You have to read slowly, one word at a time, a bit like someone gasping for air. This pattern stresses that the children are really out of breath. The book's other example sets 'falling' on a line three times, so that the leaves seem to fall slowly, one after another.

SECOND: at the end the poem says 'Night wins!'. Night is not a person, and it cannot really win a game. But the poet gives night a human quality, as if it were a player who beats the children. Giving human qualities to things that are not alive is called PERSONIFICATION.

The book's other example of personification is: the sun played hide-and-seek with the clouds. The sun cannot really play a game; the poet only makes it sound like a person. You can make your own, like 'The wind whispered through the trees' or 'The moon smiled at us'.