Shadow by Jane Urquhart

The sun in this poem is personified into a human being by referring to the light it produces as ?he? and making it as if a person was waking up the day. The light goes about waking the inanimate objects in the house when ?he 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 to ?enter from the garden?

(l 12), continues through the house by ?moving on the carpet? (l 3) and completes its task by ?burning at the flesh of your neck? (l 26). By having the cycle in this or

der, 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 sun ?moves 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 when ?he 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 it ?decides to/enter from the garden? (l 1-2). It gives the sun the initiative to decide to begin its proces

Some topics in this essay:
Jane Urquhart, role sun, jane urquhart, sun plays, waking human, human values, , person lying bed, role sun plays, importance sun, sun seen, day starting, person lying, task waking,