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 branches

3. 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?

SNOW

Snow 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 SongLet 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?