What is Personification

What does Personification mean? How to use personification in writing and why it's important?

Personification is a literary technique used to compare human qualities and traits to those of non-living things. In simple terms, things that are not people have human traits. Personification is a type of metaphor at its core. We use personification all the time in our daily lives. In fact, there are examples that are so overused that they are almost impossible to hear. You may have heard phrases like "the angry wind" or "the brooding sky" before. These are some of the most common ways to use personification.

History of Giving People Names

Since the Neolithic era, people have given things human qualities. Since people started telling stories, it has been around. Personification was used to make the ideas in these stories stronger and easier to understand.

Old works from Athens were the first to show signs of personification. Even back then, it had been used in writing for a long time. At that time, images of Victoria were used to personify; the Roman goddess was also used. In ancient Rome, it was common for writers to talk about things as if they were people.

Also, there was personification in religious works as well. Different cultures have used personification at different times in their history. It has become a way to talk about different ideas and stories by using symbolism as a base. The historical example of Bharat Mata is one of the new things that have happened or an idea that has been given a face. It shows how India is seen as a goddess. The first signs of it can be found in the 1800s. During the movement for independence, the ideas became more and more popular. It's just one example of putting a person's name on something. Other examples are Merlion, Uncle Sam, and Britannia.

Ideas Made to Look Like People

At the beginning of this article, we talked about what it means to give objects and other non-human things human traits. There's no need to use real-world nouns to give ideas a persona. The ideas take on the form of people by being brought to life through abstract thoughts. It can be seen clearly in the gods of ancient civilizations, who gave form to abstract ideas. For example, the Greeks made Eros into a god of love, and the Romans did the same thing by making Venus into a god of love. Putting ideas in the form of people helps us understand them and makes a real connection. As a mythological cycle, it can be seen in many works of literature.

Also, the Roman school of thought is based on the idea that abstractions can be seen as people. Roman ideas aren't separate from each other, and they happened in a certain social setting. There is no way to figure out how these personified abstract ideas came to be. When the Romans reached a high level of self-awareness, they made a big step forward. There isn't much or any evidence that they have struggled to grow up intellectually. In the Roman school of thought, there are a number of examples of putting ideas in the form of people. Since then, putting ideas in the form of people has grown and changed. You can look at these ends to figure out how to carry them.

How Poems Use Personification

Personification makes us feel like we know the object or thing that is being made into a person. You can look at personification in literature and poetry. In particular, it can be used by students to try out this tool in their work. If you want to learn more about personification, you can pick a poem and talk about it with your classmates. You can read the poems together and try to figure out which things are being talked about as people.

We need to think about how the poet has used personification and how that has affected the poem as a whole.

You can try to use these phrases in your writing to come up with phrases that will stick in people's minds. You can do this by thinking of verbs that describe things people do, like play, sing, dance, and more. Then, start making connections between them and things that aren't people, like a river, a fox, thunder, or a book. For instance, you could say that the grass is dancing in the sun. Another example is that the "book sang the hero's deeds." With practice, you'll be able to spot personification in writing and understand how it can be implied. With a little practice, your words will start to move around on the page.