Unit 2 - Personification

What is personification?

Personification is a specific type of metaphor. Generally, personification is defined as a literary device that assigns human qualities and attributes to objects or other non-human things.

Look for the personification in this poem.

Multiple Select

Where's the personification?

• Mister Sun wakes up at dawn

• Puts his golden slippers on

• Climbs the sky at noon

Poll

Which do you think is a more interesting sentence?

• Rita heard the last piece of pie calling her name.

• Rita wanted to eat the last piece of pie.

Multiple Choice

Lightning danced across the sky.

What is being personified?

• sky

• lightning

The lightning!

DANCING is a human quality. Describing what the lightning was doing by using the word dancing lets you form an image in your mind.

Multiple Choice

The wind howled in the night.

What is being personified here?

• wind

• night

• howling

The wind!

Describing the wind by saying it was howling allows you to imagine what it sounded like.

Open Ended

The car complained as the key was roughly turned in its ignition.

What is ANOTHER way you could personify a car?

Multiple Choice

Which of these is an example of personification?

• My alarm clock yells at me to get out of bed every morning.

• My alarm clock rang as loud as a rock concert.

Alarm clocks don't yell; people do!

Animals can be personified too.

Multiple Choice

The dog batted her lashes when she looked up at me because she wanted more food.

Which part of this sentence shows personification?

• wanted more food

• batted her lashes

Open Ended

Name something you can see right now. Make sure it is not a human!

Let's practice.

Open Ended

Use personification to describe that item.