Personification

Personification is giving human traits (qualities, feelings, action, or characteristics) to non-living

objects (things, colors, qualities, or ideas).

For example: The window winked at me.  

Turn to the window. Do you

see it winking? Are you really trying?

Look hard- Can you see it yet?

Gotcha!!!No, of-course you don’t –

windows can’t wink -silly!

The verb, wink, is a human action. A window is a non-living object.

TaDa!! Personification!

Here are some personification examples.

The sailboat danced gracefully past us. The flames ate hungrily at the burning house. The once-proud trees bent meekly before the

storm. The broad, flat rock lay sunning itself by the

stream.

Notice how personification creates a word picture.

Your Turn. Can you recognize the personification in each sentence

below?

1. The fog crept silently into the valley.2. The tree fought the wind with its

branches3. The computer devoured information

all day long.4. The hikers left the meadow and were

swallowed by the forest.

Let’s practice…..Look at the words below. Try to

give each word a quality of a human and write a sentence in

your writers journal.Now quickly draw the literal

version of one of your sentences on the page- share

with your tablemates.

Stars Grass

Table Night

What is the object being personified and the meaning of

the personification in these sentences?

The wind sang her mournful song through the falling leaves.

The microwave timer told me it was time to turn my TV dinner.

The video camera observed the whole scene. The strawberries seemed to sing, "Eat me

first!"

With your group, determine the object being personified

& what the personification is.

 1.  The winter wrapped its icy claws around Northeast Pennsylvania. 2.  The alarm clock screeched that it was time to get up. 3.  Fear grabbed me as I heard footsteps behind me. 4.  The washer sputtered and groaned as it removed the mud       from the knees of my old jeans. 5.  The printer spit out more copies than I needed. 6.  The branches of the tree pointed to the old dirt road. 7.  The flood waters swallowed the trees in one big gulp. 8.  The stars winked at us from the night sky. 9.  Listening to the piano sing its happy tune made me want to      dance. 10.  That carrot cake with the cream cheese icing is calling my name.

Poets often use this form of Figurative

Language to create exciting visual images

with words.

What characteristics does this snow have?

SNOWSnow speaks to the people itsfalling above in the glooming

sunlight.Its white sparkling voice

echoes as it falls through

the air.By Jake

"Summer Grass" by Carl Sandburg 

Summer grass aches and whispers

    It wants something: it calls and sings; it pours

   out wishes to the overhead stars.

   The rain hears; the rain answers; the rain is slow coming;

The rain wets the face of the grass.

April Rain Song

Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid

drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk. The rain makes running pools in the gutter.

The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night. And I love the rain.

by Langston Hughes

What are Langston Hughes' feelings toward rain?

What does he want his audience to do?

How does personification help him make his point?

What do you notice about the language he uses to describe the rain?