History has been said to be the key to the future. In the poem, “ The Lesson”, Billy Collins uses personification, a somber and remorseful tone, and symbolism to make sure the reader understands that history is ever-present and ever- important. The poems speaker is referred to as I and I borrows History’s coat, but History is very angry that I took the overcoat. The use of personification in, “ The Lesson”, further develops the figurative meaning of the poem. When you are first introduced to History you notice that the word history is uppercased. Personification is used in this instance because normally you would not uppercase a common noun, but you would uppercase a proper noun, like names and places. By uppercasing History Billy Collins is trying to …show more content…
In the context of the poem the word “ heavily” is used to describe how strong History is snoring. An interruption a reader can see is that history is in such deep sleep because of the weight/burden it has to carry around in it’s overcoat. This relates to the tone because when reading that part remorseful aspect surfaces. For the reason of the fact that history’s is coat is so full with deaths and sorrowful events. Also the word “ weight” is used to describe the heaviness of the overcoat. Connecting that back to the burden that History faces everyday when he carries that. The aspect of somber and remorseful tone comes in when you realize that the speaker uses the coat so easily without regard to the consequences. In addition, with all the words that you can find in the poem that suggest a somber and remorseful tone. You can conclude that History has a very large burden that no one has thought to help him with, but they use it when every they feel nessaceray. Billy Collins was trying to depict a need for the respect of history, by creating a remorseful and somber