Prompt: Personification: Write an essay showing where and how Billie Collins’ poem “Building with Its Face Blown Off” (Meyer 599) uses personification as that figure of speech is defined by Meyer (personification 437, 1166). Be sure to also read and use Meyer’s very useful interview with Collins about how Collins wrote this poem (Meyer 599-601). (Read my “READING POEMS: Notes and Resources” (WP1 Step 10) pages.).
Working thesis: In the poem Building with Its Face Blown Off by Billie Collins, he utilizes personification as a rhetorical device to illustrate and emphasize the gruesome effects of war and the irreparable damages it leaves behind on a town. Even the title incorporates personification that hooks the reader from the very beginning with vivid imagery of a buildings face getting blown off causing the reader to imagine the explosion much more ghastly. Collins poem is written as if the building is telling the story and expressing the pain of getting blown up which causes the reader to feel empathy for the building.
Body of Essay: First give supporting evidence to express how the building is being personified: …wearing only its striped pajamas.” “And the bathroom looks almost embarrassed by its uncovered ochre walls, the twisted mess of its plumbing,” “the sink sinking to its knees. Then explain the evidence by justifying why collins utilized them and also the role they played in setting the tone of the poem. Through the pictures, it is illustrating and the pain it is depicting, the poem is attempting to show how horrifying yet ironically insignificant war is because as Collins depicts no matter what happens people wake up the day after the war is over and have to rebuild and continue on with their lives, causing the effects of war to be irrelevant and insignificant in the long run. This is apparent in lines 28-30 A light snow still falling On a distant steeple, and people Crossing a bridge that still stands. Collins uses simple diction and everyday sights to paint the vivid and gruesome image of the destruction as seen from the street.
Conclusion: Collins’ use of personification illustrated a world full of chaos and destruction only to show how resilient human beings are when living in a world that doesnt stop for anything or anyone.
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