Personification
Personification occurs when an inanimate object is given human qualities.
ex. The trees boney fingers brushed against her frozen shoulder. (In this example, the tree's branches
are described as "fingers," which are characteristically human.)
Tasks
1. Read the poems below.
2. Answer the questions that follow each poem.
3. Use personification to create images in the table.
Poem #1
Two Sunflowers
Move in the Yellow Room.
"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.
William Blake
(1757-1827)
Questions
1. Identify three examples of personification in the Blake's poem. What human-like things do the
flowers do?
2. Describe the poem's tone or atmosphere. How does the use of personification affect the
atmosphere?
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Poem #2
Ode to Autumn
- by John Keats
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimmed their clammy cell.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,-While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir, the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
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Questions
1. In what way do autumn and the sun "conspire"?
2. According to the poem, where might one find autumn hanging out?
3. What does autumn's music sound like?
Personification Imagery
Complete the table below by using personification to create images. See the examples.
Image
Wind blowing through an abandoned house.
An intense lightning storm.
A long and twisted mountain range.
Using Personification
The wind whispered and wailed as it danced
through the dilapidated home.
The raging sky shot angry bolts of lightning at the
prone and defenseless earth.
The ancient spine of mountains ran down the back
of the continent, crooked and crumbling.
A garden in need of water.
A frustrating math problem.
A tornado.
A beautiful old oak tree.
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