Examples of Personification

Everyone knows what a person is, but do you know what personification is? Personification is a type of metaphor and a common literary tool. It is when you assign the qualities of a person to something that isn’t human or that isn’t even alive, like nature or emotions. There are many reasons for using personification. It can be used as a method of describing something so that others can more easily understand it. It can be used to emphasize a point. It can be used to help paint a picture in your mind. You may in fact use personification without even knowing it.

There is often confusion between personification and anthropomorphism. While personification means giving an object or animal human characteristics to create interesting imagery – as in nursery rhymes like “Hey Diddle Diddle,” where “the little dog laughed to see such fun” – anthropomorphism means making an object or animal act and look like they are human, as in Peter Rabbit.

Personification Examples in Literature

Personification is often found in literature and poetry. Some examples include:

“Two Sunflowers Move into the Yellow Room” by Nancy Willard

“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?”
They arranged themselves at the window
and counted the steps of the sun,
and they both took root in the carpet
where the topaz tortoises run.

In this poem, the sunflowers are talking to the poet William Blake. They are tired of being outside and tell him that they want to be moved. We know that sunflowers cannot be tired or talk so Willard uses personification to give them these attributes.

“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.
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.

This poem brings the beauty and tranquility of nature to life. The daffodils are personified as a crowd of people dancing, while Wordsworth floats like a cloud enjoying the show.

Personification can also be found in literature. William Shakespeare uses it throughout Romeo and Juliet. One example is in Act 2 when Friar Lawrence is picking flowers for his various potions. He says:

“The grey-ey’d morn smiles on the frowning night, Check’ring the Eastern clouds with streaks of light.”

In describing the morning as smiling at the night he is personifying the morning and establishing a romantic setting for Romeo and Juliet’s love to unfold.

50 Ways to Use Personification

The following sentences use the personification technique. See if you can identify which part of the word or phrase is the personification. The answers are below:

Did you identify the personification in the examples above? The human trait assigned to the subject is in bold here. The subject being personified is underlined.

Purpose of Personification

As seen by the examples above, personification is used to assign human qualities to things that are not human, but it does not make them behave like a human. The purpose of this figurative language is to bring inanimate things to life to better explain them. Writers often use personification to make their writing more vivid and to have the reader understand the object or animal in a better way.