Which phrase develops the personification of Tyranny in stanza 2 of "To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth"? * "no longer shall thou dread the iron chain" "with lawless hand had made" "in mournful strain of wrongs" "grievance unredress'd complain"

The phrase which develops the personification of Tyranny in stanza 2 is:

B.  "with lawless hand had made"

Explanation:

These are the lines that matter to us:

No more, America, in mournful strain

Of wrongs, and grievance unredress'd complain,

No longer shalt thou dread the iron chain,

Which wanton Tyranny with lawless hand

Had made, and with it meant t' enslave the land.

Notice how this whole excerpt refers to tyranny and how America is free of it. However, the question wants us to find the phrase that develops the personification of Tyranny.

Personification is a figure of speech that allows authors to give human qualities or characteristics to objects, animals, or even ideas. Tyranny is not a human, thus it should not have hands. Yet, the author gives Tyranny a hand, a "lawless hand" as a matter of fact, which personifies Tyranny. We can imagine it as a human being, crafting the iron chain that would torture thousands of people for so long.

sthe miracle worker  ▾search

home  >   study guides  >   the miracle worker

the miracle worker themeswilliam gibson

themes and meanings

(comprehensive guide to drama)

print  print  document  pdf  list  cite  link  link

there are two central themes in  the miracle worker: that the human spirit can triumph over even the most daunting of disabilities and that a dedicated teacher can transform the lives of those with whom he or she comes into contact. these inspirational themes have long been personified in the widely known true-life relationship between helen keller and annie sullivan, but  the miracle worker  also dramatizes collateral issues that extend beyond the particular case. underlying helen’s process of learning basic principles of what annie terms “obedience” (decorum, etiquette, and hygiene), there are more universal lessons of self-governance—the inculcation of self-restraint instead of willfulness, the development of self-discipline instead of self-indulgence. only when these lessons have been mastered can helen begin to acquire language—which, annie says, “is to the mind more than light is to the eye.”

wordsworth tends to see nature as 'out there'; a presence which surrounds humans, and contributes to human life, but is different from humans. if you look at a typical wordsworth poem (there was a boy, ye knew him well ye rocks) - wordsworth talks about nature as something that needs to be learned about and understood, nature is different from us.  

if you look at a byron poem (the isles of greece is a good one) - byron looks at nature mainly for what it already means to man. wordsworth will look at a landscape and see the mountains, trees, valleys, and rivers as almost spiritual presences - wordsworth wants to get to know nature.  

byron will look at the same landscape and he will want to know who lives there, what are the villages? are there any farms or mines, is there some history?  

wordsworth looks at nature for what it is; byron is forever asking what it means.  

wordsworth thinks that humans are part of nature; byron thinks that nature is part of being human