participle clause \ confusing

Question

I know all grammar books would tell = participle clause

My question is about grammar not about literature

I know the participle clause modifies the subject ( dawn), but I am a bit confusing how to consider ( Hovering feebly round the church, and looking in) a clause where no subject is clear and no finite verb as well ?

As much as I know, the clause ( any clause) should have both ( subject + verb ).

Here in the participle clause neither subject nor a verb is clear ( non-finite)

Is it like Arabic; we say the subject is estimated for example, ( it ) = the dawn to mean: While \ when the dawn was hovering feebly round the church and looking in, it .......... ?

Hovering feebly round the church, and looking in, dawn moans and weeps for its short reign, and its tears trickle on the window-glass, and the trees against the church-wall bow their heads, and wring their many hands in sympathy.

Answer 1

Participles are verb, so head a clause. And finite verb in English must have an explicit subject.

Non finite clauses, that is participle-gerunds an infinitive clauses normally have no explicit subject. We say that the subject is "understood" from the context.

Here we understand the subject to be "dawn". In clear English the subject of the participle should be the same as the subject of the main clause. Sometimes this rule is broken, creating a dangling participle.

This particular example uses a poetic technique called "personification". This is when an author treats an inanimate thing as if it was a person. Dickins personifies "dawn". It is a simile. He also personifies "trees". He imagines that the light of the dawn is like a person. The light and shadow move quietly and slowly around the church, and the light briefly shines through the door, like a person visiting a church but not being confident to go straight inside. The shadows move down the windows as the sun rises, like tears. It is windy and the trees are bent by the wind like people who are bowing. The leaves of the trees are like hands.

Answer 2

The participle can act simply as an adjective, e.g.,

• A running faucet wastes water.
• He read Sleeping Beauty*.
• A rolling stone gathers no moss.

This is a poetic device called personification. Dawn is treated as if a living being, performing the actions of hovering feebly (i.e., it lingers, weakened -- is the day to come gloomy, gray?), and looking in (illuminating the windows).

Have you not read Khayyam?

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, 
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

What is the Moving Finger?