What is the poetic element in these fancies? Ascribing to inanimate objects the power of human interest and sympathy.
What effect does the poet secure by picturing the trees as listeners? It enhances our idea of the absorbing interest of the story.
Mention any other illustrations of a poet's use of this device of attributing human sympathies to inanimate objects. Many might be given, for example:
Byron's Waterloo:
And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves,
Dewy with Nature's tear-drops, as they pass,
Grieving, if aught inanimate e'er grieves,
Over the unreturning brave.
Longfellow's Evangeline describing the song of the mocking-bird:
Shook from his little throat such floods of delirious music,
That the whole air and the woods and waves seemed silent to listen.
Mrs. Hemans' The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers:
Amidst the storm they sang, and the stars heard, and the sea.