Definition · Plain-language
Personification
Personification is a figure of speech that gives human qualities, actions or feelings to non-human things or abstract ideas.
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How personification works
Personification works by attributing a human trait — speech, intention, emotion or action — to something that cannot possess it. When a poet writes that "the stars danced" or "the sea raged", the natural world is briefly granted human behaviour. This creates an imaginative bridge between reader and subject, making the inanimate feel alive and the abstract feel familiar. Closely tied to metaphor, personification is essentially an implied comparison: the thing is described as if it were a person, transferring human qualities onto it for vividness or emotional effect.
Personification and anthropomorphism
Personification is often confused with anthropomorphism, but they differ in degree and intent. Personification is a figurative device: it briefly describes a non-human thing as having human qualities for poetic effect, without claiming it really behaves that way. Anthropomorphism makes a non-human being genuinely act as a human throughout a story — a talking, scheming animal in a fable, for example. So a "smiling sun" in a poem is personification, while the speaking animals of Aesop or Animal Farm are anthropomorphism.
Why writers use personification
Personification makes writing more engaging by giving life and personality to ideas, nature and objects. It can establish mood — a "brooding sky" or "hungry flames" colour a scene with emotion — and it helps readers connect with abstractions such as death, time or love by treating them as figures who act. It is common in poetry, fiction, advertising and everyday speech ("my alarm clock is my enemy"). Like all figurative language, it is most effective when fresh; clichéd personifications such as "time flies" have lost much of their imaginative force.
Key facts
At a glance
- Definition: giving human qualities to non-human things or ideas
- Category: a form of figurative language, closely linked to metaphor
- Example: "the flowers nodded their heads in the breeze"
- Contrast: anthropomorphism makes non-humans fully act as humans
- Common in: poetry, fiction, advertising and everyday speech
- Effect: vividness, mood and emotional connection
Common misconceptions
What people often get wrong
Often heard: Personification and anthropomorphism are the same thing.
Actually: Personification is a brief figurative description giving human traits to a thing ("the wind sighed"). Anthropomorphism makes a non-human being genuinely behave as a human throughout a story, such as a talking, plotting animal. The scope and intent differ.
Often heard: Personification means the thing is literally alive.
Actually: Personification is figurative, not literal. Saying "the sun smiled" does not claim the sun has a face; it projects a human quality onto it for effect. Reading it literally misunderstands the device.
Often heard: Only objects can be personified.
Actually: Abstract ideas and forces of nature are personified too — death, justice, time, love and the weather are all common subjects. Any non-human thing given human qualities counts as personification.
Going deeper
