Definition and Examples of Personification

Definition and Examples of Personification Definition Personification is a  trope or figure of speech (generally considered a type of metaphor) in which an inanimate object or abstraction is given human qualities or abilities. The term in classical rhetoric for personification is prosopopoeia. See Examples and Observations below. Also, see: What Is Personification?AllegoryApostrophe (Rhetoric)Ontological MetaphorPersonification Is Alive and WellTeaching the Figures of Speech in MoviesThe Top 20 Figures of Speech Examples of Personification in Essays and Novels James Weldon Johnsons New York in the Early 1900sThe Old Oak of Andover, by Harriet Beecher StoweOn a Rainy Morning, by C. S. BrooksPersonification in Jonathan Lethems Motherless BrooklynThe Story of a Garden, by Mabel Wright Examples and Observations Oreo: Milk’s favorite cookie.  (slogan on a package of Oreo cookies)The wind stood up and gave a shout.He whistled on his fingers andKicked the withered leaves aboutAnd thumped the branches with his handAnd said hed kill and kill and kill,And so he will! And so he will!(James Stephens, The Wind)The fog had crept into the taxi where it crouched panting in a traffic jam. It oozed in ungenially, to smear sooty fingers over the two elegant young people who sat inside.(Margery Allingham, The Tiger in the Smoke, 1952)Only the champion daisy trees were serene. After all, they were part of a rain forest already two thousand years old and scheduled for eternity, so they ignored the men and continued to rock the diamondbacks that slept in their arms. It took the river to persuade them that indeed the world was altered. (Toni Morrison, Tar Baby, 1981)The small waves were the same, chucking the rowboat under the chin as we fished at anchor.(E.B. White, Once More to the Lake, 1941)The ro ad isnt built that can make it breathe hard! (slogan for Chevrolet automobiles) Unseen, in the background, Fate was quietly slipping the lead into the boxing gloves. (P.G. Wodehouse, Very Good, Jeeves, 1930)They crossed another yard, where hulks of obsolete machinery crouched, bleeding rust into their blankets of snow . . .. (David Lodge, Nice Work. Viking, 1988)Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered. There was no one there.(proverb quoted by Christopher Moltisanti, The Sopranos)Pimento eyes bulged in their olive sockets. Lying on a ring of onion, a tomato slice exposed its seedy smile . . .. (Toni Morrison, Love: A Novel. Alfred A. Knopf, 2003)Good morning, America, how are you?Dont you know me Im your native son.Im the train they call the City of New Orleans;Ill be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.(Steve Goodman, The City of New Orleans, 1972)The only monster here is the gambling monster that has enslaved your mother! I call him Gamblor, and its time to snatch your mother from his neon claws! (Homer Simpson, The Simpsons)The operation is over. On the table, the knife lies spent, on its side, the bloody meal smear-dried upon its flanks. The knife rests.And waits.(Richard Selzer, The Knife. Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery. Simon Schuster, 1976) Dirk turned on the car wipers, which grumbled because they didnt have quite enough rain to wipe away, so he turned them off again. Rain quickly speckled the windscreen.He turned on the wipers again, but they still refused to feel that the exercise was worthwhile, and scraped and squeaked in protest.(Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. William Heinemann, 1988)Joy’s trick is to supplyDry lips with what can cool and slake,Leaving them dumbstruck also with an acheNothing can satisfy.(Richard Wilbur, Hamlen Brook)Outside, the sun springs down on the rough and tumbling town. It runs through the hedges of Goosegog Lane, cuffing the birds to sing. Spring whips green down Cockle Row, and the shells ring out. Llaregyb this snip of a morning is wildfruit and warm, the streets, fields, sands and waters springing in the young sun.(Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood, 1954) Roger Angells Personifications of Death Death, meanwhile, was constantly onstage or changing costume for his next engagementas Bergman’s thick-faced chess player; as the medieval night-rider in a hoodie; as Woody Allen’s awkward visitor half-falling into the room as he enters through the window; as W.C. Fields’s man in the bright nightgownand in my mind had gone from spectre to a waiting second-level celebrity on the Letterman show. Or almost. Some people I knew seemed to have lost all fear when dying and awaited the end with a certain impatience. I’m tired of lying here, said one. Why is this taking so long? asked another. Death will get it on with me eventually, and stay much too long, and though I’m in no hurry about the meeting, I feel I know him almost too well by now.  (Roger Angell, This Old Man. The New Yorker, February 17, 2014)   Harriet Beecher Stowes Old Oak Right opposite our house, on our Mount Clear, is an old oak, the apostle of the primeval forest. . . . His limbs have been here and there shattered; his back begins to look mossy and dilapidated; but after all, there is a piquant, decided air about him, that speaks the old age of a tree of distinction, a kingly oak. Today I see him standing, dimly revealed through the mist of falling snows; tomorrows sun will show the outline of his gnarled limbsall rose color with their soft snow burden; and again a few months, and spring will breathe on him, and he will draw a long breath, and break out once more, for the three-hundredth time, perhaps, into a vernal crown of leaves.  (Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Old Oak of Andover, 1855)   Shakespeares Use of Personification Do villainy, do, since you protest to dot,Like workmen. Ill example you with thievery.The suns a thief, and with his great attractionRobs the vast sea; the moons an arrant thief,And her pale fire she snatches from the sun;The seas a thief, whose liquid surge resolvesThe moon into salt tears; the earths a thief,That feeds and breeds by a composture stolenFrom general excrement: each things a thief.(Timon in Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare)   Frauds Tears Next came Fraud, and he had on,Like Eldon, an ermined gown;His big tears, for he wept well,Turned to mill-stones as they fell.And the little children, whoRound his feet played to and fro,Thinking every tear a gem,Had their brains knocked out by them.(Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Mask of Anarchy)   Two Types of Personification [I]t is necessary to distinguish two meanings of the term personification. One refers to the practice of giving an actual personality to an abstraction. This practice has its origins in animism and ancient religion, and it is called personification by modern theorists of religion and anthropology.The other meaning of personification . . . is the historical sense of prosopopoeia. This refers to the practice of giving a consciously fictional personality to an abstraction, impersonating it. This rhetorical practice requires a separation between the literary pretense of a personality and the actual state of affairs.(Jon Whitman, Allegory: The Dynamics of an Ancient and Medieval Technique. Harvard University Press, 1987)   Personification Today Personification, with allegory, was the literary rage in the 18th century, but it goes against the modern grain and today is the feeblest of metaphorical devices.(Rene Cappon, Associated Press Guide to News Writing, 2000)In present-day English, [personification] has taken on a new lease of life in the media, especially film and advertising, although literary critics like Northrop Frye (cited in Paxson 1994: 172) might well think it is devalued. . . .Linguistically, personification is marked by one or more of the following devices:(Katie Wales, Personal Pronouns in Present-Day English. Cambridge University Press, 1996) the potentiality for the referent to be addressed by you (or thou);the assignment of the faculty of speech (and hence the potential occurrence of I);the assignment of a personal name;co-occurrence of personified NP with he/she;reference to human/animal attributes: what TG would thus term the violation of selection restrictions (e.g. the sun slept). The Lighter Side of Personification [inside SpongeBobs mind]   SpongeBob boss: Hurry up! What do you think Im paying you for?SpongeBob worker: You dont pay me. You dont even exist. Were just a clever visual metaphor used to personify the abstract concept of thought.SpongeBob boss: One more crack like that and youre outta here!SpongeBob worker: No, please! I have three kids!(No Weenies Allowed, SpongeBob SquarePants, 2002) There was a time when music knew its place. No longer. Possibly this is not musics fault. It may be that music fell in with a bad crowd and lost its sense of common decency. I am willing to consider this. I am willing to even to try and help. I would like to do my bit to set music straight in order that it might shape up and leave the mainstream of society. The first thing that music must understand is that there are two kinds of musicgood music and bad music. Good music is music that I want to hear. Bad music is music that I dont want to hear.(Fran Lebowitz, The Sound of Music: Enough Already. Metropolitan Life, E.P. Dutton, 1978) Pronunciation: per-SON-if-i-KAY-shun Also Known As: prosopopoeia