Personification occurs three times in "For the Fallen"—in stanza's 1, 2, and 7. In each case, Binyon uses personification in order to emphasize the depth of emotions felt for the soldiers within the poem.
In the first stanza, for example, Binyon personifies England as a "proud" "mother" to the soldiers who are "her children." Maternal love is often considered one of the most powerful and tender emotions. Therefore, through personification, Binyon uses the relationship between mother and children to highlight the intimacy between England and the soldiers. This in turn emphasizes the grief that England, a mother, feels at the soldiers' deaths. Moreover, England, as a mother, is not even able to recover the bodies of her children who have died "across the sea." All of these details of the relationship between England and the soldiers enhance the sorrow in the beginning of the poem.
In line 5, Death is personified as an "august and royal" figure who pays respects to the dead soldiers by singing a song. The adjectives "august" and "royal" depict figures of nobility, such as kings and queens. Therefore, Death is not presented as a terrifying monster, but as nobility. The fact that nobility and, moreover, Death itself, would pay honor the soldiers in death suggests the nobility of the soldiers themselves. The personification, therefore, elevates the status of the soldiers, intensifying the speaker's grief and reverence for them.
In the final stanza, the speaker uses a simile to compare the soldiers to stars. In line 26, the stars "[m]ov[e] in marches upon the heavenly plain." To "march" is to move in a regular, militaristic rhythm. Additionally, battles are often fought on "plain[s]," or flat landmasses. Consequently, the stars are personified as moving across the "heavenly plain," or night sky, like soldiers. The personification of stars as soldiers further emphasizes the similarities between the stars and soldiers. Not only are the dead soldiers as radiant, noble, inspiring, heavenly, and immortal as the stars, but the stars themselves are inherently similar to the noble soldiers too.
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