How does Armitage use personification and what effect does it have?
Armitage uses personification when speaking about the chainsaw and the Pampas Grass, to show
how each represented the masculine and feminine sides of society and the population, whether it be
the anger and power a man might crave, or the weakness and delicacy a woman may be.
The first tercet introduces the Chainsaw, showing its anger at being unused all winter and ‘grinding
its teeth in a plastic sleeve’; this use of personification signifies the masculine approach to anger and
being caged up, whilst when it was ‘offered’ a can of engine oil, ‘it knocked [it] back’, showing an
alcoholic bloke figure who wants to impress his friends. This idea of peer pressure and alcohol-
induced male figures also links to possibly rape or sex, which is suggested through lines such as
‘juices ran from its joints and threads’ and others throughout the poem. ‘The chainsaw with its
bloody desire, its sweet tooth for the flesh of the face and the bones underneath’ suggests that the
chainsaw is sadistic and dangerous, again indicating anger and testosterone filled males who are
pressured into something, and go too far; the use of the homographic pun ‘its bloody desire, its
sweet tooth’ emphasises this point further. Another use of personification within the poem for the
Chainsaw, is how the speaker ‘felt the hundred beats per second drumming in its heart’; you can
infer from this that the chainsaw is voicing itself through the narrator – or the person in control of
the chainsaw – and that this speaker is enjoying the violent nature and power that comes with the
chainsaw, but is also scared and fearful of it. This also is another image portraying a power-hungry
male, who basks in power and glory, which again shows how society represents masculinity and
‘proper’ men. This only further proven by the line in the fifth tercet ‘the blade became choked with
soil or fouled with weeds’, although this may be against the chainsaw as opposed to the chainsaw
doing this itself, it highlights the violent nature of the chainsaw and its power, as well as the violent
nature of a man consumed by alcohol, or a man raping a woman. In the final tercet, Armitage uses
the line ‘the chainsaw seethed,’ which again suggests the frustration of not ‘winning’ against the
Pampas Grass – which could also be seen as a female figure who is either going against societal
views of women by defeating the Chainsaw, or is a woman being raped, and is represented by the
Pampas Grass.
Armitage’s use of personification for the Pampas Grass, is also shown throughout the poem, and
suggests female stereotypes. ‘Its ludicrous feather and plumes’ indicate femininity and delicacy,
which could be referring to the stereotypes women face in society, and how men in particular think
that women are easily cut down. ‘Probably all that was needed here was a good pull or shove or a
pitchfork’ confirms this idea. The holographic phrase ‘overkill’ demonstrates further how weak the
chainsaw believes the Pampas Grass to be. ‘Plant-juice spat’ could be seen as another sexual
reference, along with ‘pockets of dark, secret warmth’. These could be linked to another possible
idea that women in today’s society are sexualised and objectified, therefore imagery of women are
connected to and shown lines particularly like this. This image of women also suggests that women
vain and selfish because the Pampas Grass was ‘taking the warmth and light from cuttings and bulbs,
sunning itself, stealing the show’ – as if women are obsessed with their looks, and how society
believes that women only care about their looks and vanity. Other rape and sexual images could be
seen through ‘drove it vertically downwards into the upper roots’ and ‘lifted the fringe of
undergrowth’, which both suggest how the male dominates the woman much like the male-society
dominated the female society. It also shows how, in the seventh tercet, the Pampas Grass regrows
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