PERSONIFICATIO

ORIGIN

PART
OF
SPEECH
NOUN

YEAR
17451755
personi(fy) +
-fication

STATUS
A commonly favoured literary tool
Often used without ones knowledge

DEFINE
Personification
is when you assign
the qualities of a person
to
something that isn't human or, in
some cases, to something that
isn't even alive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yLtrKw0opY

WHY USE IT?

used as a method of describing
something so that others can
understand
used to emphasize a point

MECHANICS
The stars danced playfully in the moonlit sky.

Subject

Adverb

Verb

Prepositional phrase

IMAGES
derived from

SENSORY EXPERIENCES
are the stuff of ones

THOUGHT
CREATIVITY

EXAMPLES
The first rays of morning tiptoed through the
meadow.
She did not realize that opportunity was
knocking at her door.
He did not realize that his last chance was
sneaking out of the door.
The snow swaddled the earth like a mother
would her infant child.
The ocean wave slashed out at the boat and
the storm continued to brew.
My computer throws a fit every time I try to
use it.

Personification
In
Poetry

show inanimate
objects taking on
human characteristics

Personification in Children's
Literature
THE CAT & THE FIDDLE
Hey diddle, diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the
spoon.
http://clip.dj/nursery-rhyme-hey-diddle-diddle-downloadmp3-mp4-1Yll770Kqsk#v/pvhfa0LaVGU

HUMOU
R

A Cat Named Joe where a

cat thinks in a different way
than cats usually think and
engages in conversation.

A CAT NAMED JOE

There's a cat named Joe and you wouldn't
want to know
But he thinks he'd like to be a Hippopotamus
And it sounds very strange and he really
wants to change
And in that way he's just like a lot of us
Oh, it wouldn't be so bad if he was certified
as mad
But he's not... he holds a normal
conversation
It's just that within he's in a different kind of
skin

My Dinner Loves
Dancing
My food loves to prance, to jump, to

dance;
I wait for the time, I wait for the chance!
As mommy goes in and out of the room;
tables and chairs become their ballroom!
I flick my fingers; swing my wrist.
Beans and turkey are doing the twist!
Peas, plumbs, apples or mangos;
on to the walls, they're doing the tango!
Written from a childs perspective personifies food

Personification in
Poetry
changes the way you
perceive the poetry
changes the meaning of
the poem

BE A
COMPOSER

Use personification
to create
a brand new song
(duration of song)
(Less than 1 min)

PAIR TASK
BE A
COMPOSER

Choose a song that

both of you are
familiar with.
Keep the tune of
the selected song.
Select a segment of
the song to
recreate it.
Rewrite the lyrics
of the song using
personification.
Sing the song for
the class in the
next EL lesson.

Appropriate
word choices
Socially
acceptable
ideas in the
lyrics