Question

Passage
Audio
But if I thought to stop the wet stampede, And caught one silver lizard by the tail, And put my foot on one without avail, And threw myself wet-elbowed and wet-kneed In front of twenty others wriggling speed,-In the confusion of them all aglitter, And birds that joined in the excited fun By doubling and redoubling song and twitter, I have no doubt I'd end by holding none.
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It takes the moon for this. The sun's a wizard By all I tell: but so's the moon a witch. From the high west she makes a gentle cast And suddenly, without a jerk or twitch, She has her spell on every single lizard. Ifancied when I looked at six o'clock The swarm still ran and scuttled just as fast. The moon was waiting for her chill effect. I looked at nine: the swarm was turned to rock In every lifelike posture of the swarm, Transfixed on mountain slopes almost erect.
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On page 2 of the Passage, review lines 19-26 of the poem. What is the purpose of the personification in these lines?
to create the sense that nature's actions are intentional and beyond our control
to demonstrate that the sun and moon have ways of playing tricks on humans
to hint at the idea that the sun and moon are working in a constant partnership
to suggest that nature's processes have not been well understood and never can be

Answer 1

to create the sense that nature's actions are intentional and beyond our control

By calling the sun a wizard and the moon a witch and saying the moon "has her spell on every single lizard," the poem gives nature agency and deliberate power, emphasizing the speaker's helplessness before these forces.