How To Improve Your Writing with Personification

Personification means to give a non-human thing a human quality. You can see poets and sometimes novelists write this way, especially poets. This is because it is an expressive way of writing that suits the poem well.

Edgar Allan Poe uses personification in his famous gothic poem “The Raven” on many occasions. One example is him calling the curtains “sad.” (Found in the third stanza)

And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;

    So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating

    “’Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door—

Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;—

            This it is and nothing more.”

Giving a non-human thing human qualities is a common habit. Sailors, long ago and still today, may call the ocean a “she” because they think of the ocean as a woman.

Here’s a poem I wrote that explains personification using nature:

 BLUE MOONLIGHT

Blue star among sleepy clouds,

you have graced us with a faint light,

shining silver on grass valleys.

Jumping from dark forests,

behind a translucent cloud veil, 

where do you scurry to?

A deer drinks your silver face.

Lifting her head, the lake drips

from her nose, watering the moon.

So, “sleepy clouds” give the emotion of clouds being tired. The moon “Jumping from the dark forests” makes it seem like the moon is excited to rise, like a person excited on vacation. So, “sleepy” is a human or animal quality; clouds, of course, are never sleepy. The moon “jumping” is another human or animal quality we apply to the moon, a non-human thing.

Then I ask where the moon will “scurry to,” implying the moon can just walk around like a person on a journey. Finally, saying that the moon has a “silver face” is an example of personification. However, “face” could mean “surface,” but I meant the face of a person as if the moon is a face. This is a sentimental poem, reminiscent of old cartoons where the moon has a human-like face, surrounded by a happy environment.

By giving non-human things human qualities, we can make the poem more exciting to read, vivid, and fun to write.

For even more examples, here are micro poems I wrote that can further show personification:

the world is absurd

but I still cling to its flowers

like a bee drunk on spring

…

this lake

collects memories

as floating leaves

…

my shadow waits for me

as I stop to look

at the flowers

Can you find the personification? A ‘drunk’ bee, memories as leaves, and a shadow ‘waiting’ as I pause in a garden are the simple uses of figurative language.

Using personification can be fun and easy. It’s not strict, so you can relax, read poetry, and find other examples and inspirations. This element is found in many poems written today and in the past.

Does the tree “dig his toes into the dirt” or a flower “drink the sunlight”? Probably not, but we poets like to think so.

The easiest way to try personification is to use nature like sailors calling the sea or ocean a “she.” We may even read poems from thousands of years ago that give nature human qualities. We also do this when using the name Mother Nature, as nature is a source of calm for many of us.

Image credit: “moon drawing” by aesop