Learn English – Name for literary device of changing person

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Is there a name for the device of changing between third person and second person in a poem? Basically going back and forth from talking about the subject and talking to the subject. This happens a lot in song lyrics. For example in the Elton John song "Daniel" during the verses he is singing about the subject:

Daniel is traveling tonight on a plane

But during the chorus he is singing to the subject:

Daniel my brother you are older than me.
Do you still feel the pain of
the scars that won't heal

I'm pretty sure I've heard it done in poetry too but I can't come up with an example right now.

Best Answer

Here's an excellent example, Psalm 75, which in seven verses goes from the first person plural ("We praise you, God,....") to a second person, direct address to God ("You say, 'I choose the appointed time;....'") to a third person description of God ("It is God who judges:...."). Note that the second-person is a quotation of God, which requires a change inside the quotation to the first person to preserve the meaning.

This kind of change is called a "shift in person" or sometimes a "shift in point of view" or "POV shift." From a paper God does not sing. Identification of participants in Psalm 75 by Christiaan Erwich:

What voices can be heard in the Psalms? A great challenge of reading the poetry of the Psalms is the identification of participants. The major cause of this problem is a continual shift in person, number and gender (so-called PNG-shifts) in the text.

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