Poetry Personification and Cinquains

What is Personification? Personification is giving human traits (qualities, feelings, action, or characteristics) to non-living objects (things, colours, qualities, or ideas).

Some examples are: a)The sun greeted me this morning. b) Snow had wrapped a white blanket over the city. c)Time never waits for anyone. d)Trees were dancing with the wind.

Example The sun greeted me this morning. How is this personified? To help you answer this, ask yourself: In the line, what is the human trait?

Let’s work through the examples to help us understand them. The flowers were dancing back and forth on the field. What is the object being personified? What is the meaning?

2) The sun greeted me this morning. What is the object being personified? What is the meaning?

3. Snow had wrapped a white blanket over the city. What is the object being personified? What is the meaning?

4) Time never waits for anyone. What is the object being personified? What is the meaning?

Read the sentences in the boxes on the left Read the sentences in the boxes on the left.  In the middle box, write down the object that is being personified.  In the last box, explain what the sentences means.  The first one is done for you. Sentence Object being personified What does it mean? The wind sang her mournful song through the falling leaves. The wind. It means that the wind howled through the trees. The bear reads my mind. The leaves danced in the wind. The rain kissed my cheeks as it fell. The water called out invitingly to the hot swimmers.

Through the last activity you should have noticed that in each line: There was an object being personified and… There was a meaning. It is not enough to say “The wall laughed”. Ask yourself: When someone else reads this, will they understand what it means?

Challenge Create you own line of personification. Remember… Personification is giving human traits (qualities, feelings, action, or characteristics) to non-living objects (things, colours, qualities, or ideas). It needs to make sense! You cannot just say “the wall laughed”.

Cinquain

The Definition An unrhymed poem consisting of five formatted lines.

Mantis Stick Predator Stalking, preening, searching Slenderly fashioned by nature Killer

Cinquains do not have titles Cinquains do not have titles. However, the first line serves as the announced topic.

The Format One word topic two describing words three action words A four word phrase A synonym for the topic

Example Rain Heavy, awesome Drenching, soaking, penetrating Renewing the earth’s firmament Soil-soaker

Important!!! The topic that is introduced in the first line, is the topic continued though out the whole poem.

Knights Armor ,shields Fighting, charging, slaughtering Worried, delighted, brave, fearsome Crusaders

Now let’s try some! Extension challenge: Try incorporate personification.