Personification is described as attributing human characteristics such as actions, feelings, or thoughts to non-human objects, animals, or abstract concepts. Examples are provided such as "the wind yelled" and "the necklace is a friend." Personification is used to make descriptions more vivid and imaginative. It is also commonly used in other mediums like advertising, music, art, and stories to create memorable anthropomorphic characters. The poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth is given as a famous example of personification.

1. POETIC TECHNIQUES:

2. What is Personification?
 Where a non-living
object, an animal or an
abstract idea is given
human qualities
 The sentence involves a
human action
 The poet writes about
the object as if it is a
person

3. For example:
"Wind yells while blowing"
"Wind yells while blowing" is an
example of personification because
wind cannot yell. Only a living thing
can yell.
“Necklace is a friend”
"Necklace is a friend" is an example
of personification because a
necklace is a thing, and necklaces
cannot be friends. Only living things
can have friends.

4. Why
Personify?
 Personification can make things easier to
imagine when you read them.
For example, you can’t see the wind, but
if someone wrote “the wind raged with
fierce anger” you might get a better
impression of how the wind blew that
day.

5. Is Personification used in other
mediums apart from Poetry?
Personification is used in many forms
of literature, music, advertising, art
and drama. These may include (but
are not limited to) novels, short
stories, fairytales, sculptures,
television shows, films, and theatre.

6. Personification – Origins
 Personification is strongly associated with art
and storytelling where it has ancient roots.
 Most cultures possess a long-standing
storytelling tradition with personified animals
as characters. For example in the children’s
story Alice in Wonderland there are several
anthropomorphic characters including the
white rabbit or the cheshire cat.
 Artists have always thought there was
something important about the connection
between people and objects.
 For example in the drawing to the right the
artist has personified the waves through the
image of a woman.

7. Personification in Advertising
 Have any of these "people" ever
appeared in your kitchen: Mr.
Clean (a household cleaner), or
Mr. Muscle (an oven cleaner)?
How about Kellogg’s
Snap, Crackle & Pop Rice
Bubbles (cereal), or Uncle Ben’s
(rice)?
 For over a century, companies
have relied heavily on
personification to create
memorable images of their
products--images that often
appear in print advertisements
and TV commercials for those

8. Personification in Music
Musicians and lyricists constantly use
personification to describe
emotions, places, objects or nature in their
songs.
For Example:
Stop & Stare – One Republic
“This town is colder now,
I think it’s sick of us.”
A collection of songs using personification:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKexdSZNiL
c

9. An example of Personification in
a well-known Poem
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
by William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and
hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the
trees, Fluttering and dancing in
the breeze.

10. Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

11. References
Cummings, M. (2008). Study Guide: I Wandered Lonely as a
Cloud. Retrieved April 26, 2012 from
http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides3/IWandered.htm
l
Nordquist, R. (2012). What is Personification? Retrieved April
24, 2012 from
http://grammar.about.com/od/qaaboutrhetoric/a/faqpersonificat
ion.htm
Packard, W. (1994). The Poet’s Dictionary: A Handbook of
Prosody and Poetic Devices. New York: Collins Reference.
Paxson, J. (1994). The Poetics of Personification. London:
Cambridge University Press.
Wing Jan, L. (2009). Write Ways: Modelling Writing Forms (3rd
ed). South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.