Personification - Gender - Noun-Parts Of Speech-ESL/Learn English Grammar

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34. Just as abstract ideas are personified (Sec. 16), material
objects may be spoken of like gender nouns; for example,--

"Now, where the swift _Rhone_ cleaves _his_ way."--BYRON.

The _Sun_ now rose upon the right:
Out of the sea came _he_.
--COLERIDGE.

And haply the _Queen Moon_ is on _her_ throne,
Clustered around by all her starry Fays.
--KEATS,

_Britannia_ needs no bulwarks,
No towers along the steep;
_Her_ march is o'er the mountain waves,
_Her_ home is on the deep.
--CAMPBELL

This is not exclusively a poetic use. In ordinary speech
personification is very frequent: the pilot speaks of his boat as
feminine; the engineer speaks so of his engine; etc.

[Sidenote: Effect of personification.]

In such cases the gender is marked by the pronoun, and not by the form
of the noun. But the fact that in English the distinction of gender is
confined to difference of sex makes these departures more effective.



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