Glossary Term of the Day:

The pathetic fallacy -- or anthropomorphic fallacy -- is the treatment of inanimate objects as if they had human feelings, thought, or sensations. The phrase was coined by the Victorian literary critic John Ruskin. For him, a poet’s tendency to project his or her emotions outward onto the workings of the natural world was a kind of false vision.

The word 'pathetic' in this use is related to 'pathos' or 'empathy' (capability of feeling), and is not pejorative. Today the term is used more neutrally, and the phenomenon is usually accepted as an integral part of the poet’s craft.

The pathetic fallacy is is related to personification, but emphasizes the relationship between the poet’s emotional state and what he or she sees in the object or objects. Personification is direct and explicit in the ascription of life and sentience to the thing in question, whereas the pathetic fallacy is much broader and more allusive.

In Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” the speaker sees a field of daffodils “tossing their heads in a sprightly dance,” outdoing the nearby lake’s sparkling waves with their glee.” The speaker, in times of solitude and introspection, is heartened by memories of the flowers’ joy. This is a prime example of the pathetic fallacy at use:

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

[MsJacquiiC]

This is really good to know. I was beginning to think the "pathetic fallacy" was some sort of unspoken translation of my life by unseen gods playing at being demons

Seriously... Filed away for future reference