Personification
Introduced| English |
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| Personification/pɜːˈsɒnɪfɪkeɪʃn/ |
A comparison, not a decoration
- Personification 拟人 is a type of comparison that assigns a human trait or quality to a nonhuman object, entity or idea.
- The CED classes it as a comparison, which means everything you know about metaphor applies.
- There is a main subject, a transferred quality, and a context that decides which quality.
When a clock “complains,” it has acquired a human trait and an unusually full schedule.
The CED's definition of personification ends with the purpose of...
So personification does to a thing what description does to a person.
It characterises
- The CED ends the sentence with a purpose: thus characterizing that object, entity or idea.
- So personification does to a thing what description does to a person.
- The analysis therefore names a character — what kind of thing this river, grief or house now is.
Personification is classed by the CED as a type of comparison.
So everything you know about metaphor applies: main subject, transferred quality, context.
Name the exact human trait
- The wind is personified identifies the device and stops.
- Which human trait? Patience, malice, indifference, exhaustion — each characterises differently.
- The trait is the analysable content; the label is not.
What does this personification characterise the thing as?
Sort each phrase by the character it gives the nonhuman subject.
The analysable content is the exact human ____ assigned, not the label.
Patient, malicious and exhausted are three different poems.
"The wind is personified" is identification, not analysis. The CED's definition ends in characterizing — so the answer must name the exact human trait assigned and what kind of thing the object thereby becomes. Patient, malicious and exhausted are three different poems.
In a first-person poem, a personification belongs to...
A speaker who finds the sea patient has told you something about themselves.
Who is doing the personifying
- A personification in a first-person poem belongs to the speaker, not to the world.
- A speaker who finds the sea patient has told you something about themselves.
- So ask, as with any comparison, what choosing it says about the one who chose it.
Match each personification to what it characterises the thing as.
Three traits, three characters, three different poems.
A personification pass
- Name the nonhuman subject and the exact human trait assigned.
- Say how that trait characterises the subject.
- Then ask what the choice of that particular trait says about the speaker.
The sea is patient. Trait: patience. Characterisation: the sea now has intention and time, and is waiting for something. Speaker: someone who believes the sea is coming for the house eventually — which the poem confirms four lines later without ever saying so.
Personification is a type of comparison assigning a human trait to a nonhuman object, entity or idea, thus characterizing it. Name the exact trait, say how it characterises the subject, and — since it is a comparison — ask what choosing it says about the speaker.