Personification And Hyperboles In Robert Penn Warren's True Love

Love is one of the most basic human instincts. It begins at birth and sometimes remains after death. Although love is a universal term, there is a great deal of connotation when it comes to its true meaning. For example, the love one has towards his or her mother is drastically different from the love felt towards a significant other. However, all variations of love have one common virtue; everyone is seeking it in some manner or another. Throughout Robert Penn Warren’s, “True Love,” personification and hyperboles are applied to create a reminiscently obsessive tone which demonstrates that although love is a universal emotion, not everyone will experience it in the same nature. In particular, Warren incorporates personification in order to

The speaker utilizes this in order to detail his reaction towards such a miniscule event of being noticed by this girl. He does this with hyperboles such as, “She/ Named my name. I thought I would wake up dead.” This quote is saying that the small act of this girl knowing his name makes him feel overwhelmed by the emotion of love. Hyperboles show the exaggeration of what he was feeling, due to his infatuation for her, by stating that he feels as if he was going to die from the excitement. The speaker’s reaction exemplifies how the small act of being recognized by one’s “love” can cause a rush of emotions. These emotions are just some of the feelings that the passion of love can bring. The usage of hyperboles and personification proceeds to instill a reminiscently obsessive tone which arises from the fact that he continues to admire and feel a passion for her, long past his childhood. This is just an example of one instance that love can be felt, even though the girl he is speaking of does not feel a sense of affection towards him. In conclusion, the usage of personification and hyperboles in “True love,” exemplify how love comes in unique experiences, and differs from person to person. Whether it is a mother’s love for a child, a mutual love between two beings, or an individual’s love for another being from afar, the feeling that love can inspire