The personification is a figure of speech which gives human qualities to non-human things. The line is sometimes blurred between the personification and the metaphor because both make an implicit comparison between two things.The personification compares something to humans by giving it human qualities. We can say then that the personification is a subcategory of the metaphor which gives non-human things human qualities.
The personification is a literary device which gives human qualities to things that are not human. These non-human things may be either living things such as plants and animals, or non-living things such as inanimate objects, rivers, the wind etc.
The word personification comes from:
Person, meaning “a human being” and “ification” meaning to make.
So, with the personification, we make (something) like a human being.
Examples of the Personification
The aromatic, freshly cooked food beckoned me to eat it.
The flowers bent their head to passing wind.
The flowers bowed their head gracefully as we passed by.
The flowers danced in the wind.
After 6 months of dry season in the city of Campo Verde, heavy winds whistled through the city above the rooftops and ushered in the rainy season which usually lasts 6 months.
The withering plants were crying out for water.
A personification compares something to humans thus giving it human qualities. When human qualities are giving to something through an implicit comparison, we call this personification.
The personification is often used in poetry. Here is a good example.
The poem “Beclouded,” by Emily Dickinson, makes very good use of the personification.
The sky is low, the clouds are mean,
A travelling flake of snow
Across a barn or through a rut
Debates if it will go.
A narrow wind complains all day
How some one treated him;
Nature, like us, is sometimes caught
Without her diadem.
In the above poem, the following things are given human qualities:
- The clouds:
- A flake of snow.
- The wind.
- Nature.
The clouds are mean suggests that the clouds intentionally bring about bad weather, as if to spite someone.
A traveling flake of snow “debates if it will go.” Have you ever been undecided about which of two places you should go? You probably found yourself walking ten paces in one direction and then ten paces in the opposite direction. In this poem, the flake of snow is blown back and forth between a barn and a rut. However, the poet uses fun and imaginative language in saying that the flake of snow, which was being tossed about by the wind, was debating whether to go across a barn or through a rut.
On a windy day, if someone puts up a blockade against the wind, you will hear the wind rushing against it. People are likely to react negatively to the wind when it blows their things down or even their hair out of place! The poet uses imaginative language to suggest that the sound of the wind complained about being treated badly. Perhaps someone closed a window on “him”?
Nature like us is sometimes caught without her diadem. Diadem means crown, and crown signifies glory. When the clouds are mean, when a flake of snow doesn’t know where to go and when the wind is treated badly, that’s not the most glorious situations for nature!
The opposite of “glorious” may be “undignified.” In this poem, nature is depicted in some not-so-glorious, or undignified situations. Figuratively speaking, nature is here caught “without her crown.” And that happens to us humans too!
Can you create some personifications of your own? Tell us in the comments.
