Personification is the act in speech and writing of giving inanimate objects, abstract concepts or actions, human or near human characteristics. It is different than anthropomorphism, which gives animals both human personality and behavior. Personification is a type of metaphor since it is a metaphoric way of spicing up writing, and making the abstract more relatable.

Though personification is a frequent literary device in poetry, it is also in daily common speech. For example, a person might look at a clock and say, “Time just got away from me.” This suggests that the concept of “time” has self-will, and the person was attempting wrestle with time to stay put. Time however “got away.”

Even young children use personification regularly. A child might be asked if he threw a pencil. The child might reply, “I didn’t throw it. It threw itself.” While the child here uses personification as an evasion tactic, he is still giving the pencil somewhat human characteristics that it does not possess.

In literature, it is easy to find examples of personification. Fog “creeps.” Thoughts “explode.” Trees “menace.” Clouds “portend.” Death becomes a “messenger.” These examples are all ways in which a writer can use personification to make ordinary objects or abstract concepts essentially come alive and provide more of an emotional feel for the reader. The examples above also give the things personified human characteristics, which connect to the reader’s understanding of the human world, and human actions.

In the magazine In Context, Joseph Campbell gave an interview in 1985 where he suggested that personification was one way in which those following a religion came to terms with the huge and abstract concept of God. Of course the Bible begins quite soon, telling us that Man is made in “God’s image.” In the Judeo-Christian tradition this immediately personifies God. God is male and looks like a man.

Such personification allows for people to more readily keep to the concept of a personal God, since he is like a father, who looks very much like the rest of us. Earlier religious concepts also suggest personification of a number of things present in the environment or in the stars.

Animism sees aspects of the divine in simple natural elements, like the sun, the moon, the trees, or the river. By ascribing human intent or characteristics to these objects, better understanding of what constitutes a deity or multiple deities is reached.

If the sun laughs when it is high in the sky, or the moon sleeps, these astral bodies are suddenly human and therefore a person can relate to them. Conversely, when the sun is described in purely scientific terms it becomes remote and impersonal. It may be understood scientifically, but is much harder to “get” emotionally.