It annoys me more that:
- "The wind moved through the alleys restlessly" rather than "the wind moved restlessly through the alleys".
- "The evening drew the light" _from_, not _out of_ the streets. The light is not _inside_ the streets, unless perhaps you're talking about streetlights going out.
- _Themselves_ is unnecessary.
- _The river kept its steady argument_ also sounds off to me, but I don't have a better suggestion (_kept up_ doesn't sound any better).
That's fair, but the point wasn't to provide the best possible literature, just something good enough to show it's unobjectionable to speak of things as if they have a mind even when the things are obviously mindless to anyone who isn't a panpsychist.
