Deciding Between Personification and Metaphor in a Poetry Answer
In a poetry appreciation test, students are given the line 'The tired road stretches its arms toward the horizon' and asked a two-mark question: 'Identify and explain the figure of speech.' One student writes, 'Personification, because the road is given arms and the human action of stretching.' A second writes, 'Metaphor, because the road is compared to a person without using like or as.' A third writes, 'Imagery, because it creates a picture of a road in the reader's mind.' The teacher's key names personification. The class has been taught that figures can overlap, but the question asks for the most prominent figure. The teacher must decide whether to accept the second answer, how to mark the third, and how to explain the decision so that students learn a transferable method rather than memorising one label. The school's marking policy allows full credit for an alternative figure only when the explanation is accurate and specific to the line.
1. Which answer should receive full credit, and would you also accept 'metaphor'? Justify with the wording of the line.
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Full credit for Student 1 (personification). The line gives an inanimate road two human attributes: 'arms' and the action 'stretches'. Personification is therefore the most prominent figure. Student 2's 'metaphor' is not wrong in a broad sense: the line implies a comparison between road and person. Under the school policy, accept it for full credit only if the explanation is accurate and specific - 'the road is imagined as a person stretching' is specific; a bare label is not. Student 2 does give a reason, so I would award 2/2 but annotate that the primary label is personification. This is consistent: we are rewarding accurate explanation of figurative language, not one memorised label. The key remains a guide, not a trap.
2. The third student writes only 'imagery because it creates a picture.' How many of the 2 marks should be awarded, and what is the reasoning?
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Student 3 gets 0/2, or at most 1 if the rubric rewards device recognition separately. 'Imagery' is a broad category, not the specific figure the question asks for, and 'creates a picture' is true of almost every line. It does not explain how the words produce the effect. To be fair, I would announce the rule before marking: a label alone earns 0; label plus line-specific explanation earns 2. Under that rule, Student 3 has no line-specific explanation, so 0. If the department rubric gives 1 for any plausible device, then 1, but the feedback must still say 'name the figure and show which words create it'.
3. Design a one-sentence follow-up that would help the class distinguish personification from metaphor without simply giving the answer.
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Follow-up: 'Which word in the line cannot literally belong to a road, and what human action does it suggest?' Expected response: 'Arms' and 'stretches' cannot literally belong to a road; they suggest a tired person extending their limbs. This separates personification (a human attribute given to something non-human) from metaphor (a comparison without like or as) because students must point to the exact word that breaks literal sense. Then ask: 'If you called it a metaphor, what two things are being compared?' That makes the overlap visible without giving the answer.