The Peopling of Personification

Fun to Read and Even More Fun to Write

One of my favorite literary devices and one of the most common is personification:  attaching human characteristics to something that is non-human.

If you read very much, then you’ve seen a lot of personification.  It’s fun to be reading something and find one and it’s just as much fun to come up with one of your own and write it into a story, or poem.

Examples:

Personification in Literature

The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
(from “The Fog” by Carl Sandburg)

Ah, William, we're weary of weather,"
said the sunflowers, shining with dew.
"Our traveling habits have tired us.
Can you give us a room with a view?
("Two Sunflowers Move into the Yellow Room" by Nancy Willard)

"The night was creeping on the ground!
She crept and did not make a sound"
(from “Check” by James Stephens)

Sentence Personification

• The bees played hide and seek with the flowers

• The thunder grumbled like an old man.

• The flowers waltzed in the gentle breeze.

• The sun glared down at me from the sky.

• The moon winked at me through the clouds.

• The thunder clapped angrily in the distance.

• The tornado wildly ran through town.

Personification in Advertising

·      Oreo: Milk's favorite cookie

·      Nothing hugs like Huggies (Huggies diapers)

·      Goldfish - The snack that smiles back (Goldfish snack crackers)

·      Kleenex says bless you (Kleenex facial tissues)

·      The car that cares (Kia)

·      Unwrap a smile (Little Debbie snack cakes)

·      Carvel - It's what happy tastes like (Carvel ice cream)

When my eleven grandchildren were growing up, we used to make a game out of seeing how many personifications we could come up with –-the sillier we made them, the more fun they were.

Here’s my favorite from one of our games:

“The clouds marched in and hid the sun.
The rain cried all day long. 
Then when the rain was all cried out,
the sun sent the rain on the run.”

Published Poet/Writer/Author of 5 books.
Quora Top Writer 2018
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