What type of speech is personification

Sometimes the sun smiles, the wind whispers to the trees, and the shadows of the leaves dance in the wind. When we talk about non-human things as if they were human, we personify them. Personification is a kind of metaphor in which you describe an inanimate object, abstract thing, or non-human animal in human terms.

It is used to create more interesting and engaging scenes or characters. Personification is very common in both literature and everyday speech. Here are a few common examples of personification:.

But this personification tells us that the books meant a lot to him, like close friends, and probably brought him happiness, like friends would. The tired old car coughed and weezed and crawled down the street.

This sort of description, common in literature, uses several human qualities to create a vivid image of a very old car for the reader. Personification energizes prose and poetry alike. Peace had deserted Devon. Although not in the look of the campus and village; they retained much of their dreaming summer calm.

Fall had barely touched the full splendor of the trees, and during the height of the day the sun briefly regained its summertime power. In the air there was only an edge of coolness to imply the coming winter. But all had been caught up, like the first fallen leaves, by a new and energetic wind. In this example, peace, an abstract idea, can desert a place.

Also, the campus and village dream and the fall touches the trees. Can you give us a room with a view? William Wordsworth's 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. 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 great William Shakespeare uses personification throughout Romeo and Juliet. One example is in Act 2 when Friar Lawrence is picking flowers for his various potions. 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.

In the poem " Paul Revere's Ride ," Longfellow uses personification to describe the flow of the wind. The way he words the passage makes it easy to see the wind swirling past the tents. Check out an excerpt of this poem. Famous poet and author Shel Silverstein uses personification to show how doubts can crawl into your mind.

This effective literary device creates a beautiful image in your mind of the doubts filling this child. 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. You can also use personification to help paint a picture in your mind.

You may even use personification without knowing it. Personification is all about giving your writing more pop! For example, rather than saying, "The stars twinkled in the sky," you can say, "The stars danced playfully in the moonlit sky. In your mind, you can see the twinkling stars dancing in the moonlight. Explore a few examples of how personification adds to the sentence meaning.

Do you think that you understand what personification is? Then you might want to try your hand at finding personification in a sentence. Remember, it gives human behaviors and gestures to nonhuman things or ideas.

The subject of the personification and the human characteristic it was assigned are both in bold. How many did you get right? There is often confusion between personification and anthropomorphism. While they are similar, there is a distinct difference. So, personification gives human traits while anthropomorphism makes something act like a human. Most Disney moves use anthropomorphism.

As seen by the examples, personification is used to assign human qualities to things that are not human, but it does not make them completely 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. Keep having fun with this literary device by checking out humorous examples of personification in poetry.

All rights reserved. Suffering green car needing TLC. What Is Personification? However, personifying nonhuman things can be an interesting, creative, and effective way for a writer to illustrate a concept or make a point.

This literary device is effective in creating an imaginary world for children in which crayons can communicate like humans. Here are some well-known and recognizable titles and quotes featuring this figure of speech:. Personification is often confused with the literary term anthropomorphism due to fundamental similarities. However, there is a difference between these two literary devices.

Anthropomorphism is when human characteristics or qualities are applied to animals or deities, not inanimate objects or abstract ideas.

As a literary device, anthropomorphism allows an animal or deity to behave as a human. This is reflected in Greek dramas in which gods would appear and involve themselves in human actions and relationships.

In addition to gods, writers use anthropomorphism to create animals that display human traits or likenesses such as wearing clothes or speaking. There are several examples of this literary device in popular culture and literature. For example, Mickey Mouse is a character that illustrates anthropomorphism in that he wears clothes and talks like a human, though he is technically an animal. Therefore, while anthropomorphism is limited to animals and deities, personification can be more widely applied as a literary device by including inanimate objects and abstract ideas.

Personification allows writers to attribute human characteristics to nonhuman things without turning those things into human-like characters, as is done with anthropomorphism. Overall, as a literary device, personification functions as a means of creating imagery and connections between the animate and inanimate for readers.