pathetic fallacy
| the endowment of nature, inanimate objects, etc., with human traits and feelings, as in the smiling skies; the angry sea. |
coined by John Ruskin in Modern Painters Vol. III, Part IV (1856)
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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| pathetic fallacy n. The attribution of human emotions or characteristics to inanimate objects or to nature; for example, angry clouds; a cruel wind. |
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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pathetic fallacy
poetic practice of attributing human emotion or responses to nature, inanimate objects, or animals. The practice is a form of personification that is as old as poetry, in which it has always been common to find smiling or dancing flowers, angry or cruel winds, brooding mountains, moping owls, or happy larks. The term was coined by John Ruskin in Modern Painters (1843-60). In some classical poetic forms such as the pastoral elegy, the pathetic fallacy is actually a required convention. In Milton's "On The Morning of Christ's Nativity," all aspects of nature react affectively to the event of Christ's birth.The Stars with deep amazeStand fixt in steadfast gaze
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