Language Arts 10 Module 1

Module 1 Section 3

Figurative Language: Personification

This term describes a special form of metaphor in which a nonhuman object or (especially) an abstract idea is given human characteristics. According to some definitions of personification, giving any animal human qualities would qualify.

Look at the following example of the poem, “I wandered lonely as a cloud,” by William Wordsworth:

I wandered lonely as a cloud. That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils, Beside the lake, beneath the trees Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.