James Thomson's “Winter”: The Personification of Nature

In the “Winter” section of The Seasons, James Thomson personifies Nature. The literary representation of Winter thereby becomes an investigation into cause and effect based on human characteristics. “Winter comes to rule” the year (1) like a leader who rules a country; it falls “oppressive o’er the world” (58). In the first section of “Winter,” the season is seen as a powerful “Father” (72) or “great Parent” (106) who has control over people, plants, and animals. In this …showed first 75 words of 372 total…

…showed last 75 words of 372 total…once it is understood? Thomson thereafter describes how the guns of the hunters “Worse than the season desolate the fields” (791). Human invention and knowledge suddenly becomes more powerful than Nature. In “Winter,” Thomson uses human attributes to describe Nature. At the same time, he suggests that human knowledge can somehow overcome Nature. In this sense, “superstitious horror” (620) will be replaced with scientific knowledge; the chaos and oppression of Nature will dissolve like the winter snow.