3.3.4 Personification

A personification is the presentation of an object or idea as a person with human qualities or feelings.

Example:

When I put her out, once, by the garbage pail,
She looked so limp and bedraggled,
So foolish and trusting, like a sick poodle,
Or a wizened aster in late September,
I brought her back in again
For a new routine -
Vitamins, water, and whatever
Sustenence seemed sensible
At the time:

From Theodore Roethke's "The Geranium")
(In New Senior English (1988). R.K. Sadler, T.A.S. Hayllar & C.J. Powell (Eds.). Melbourne: Macmillan Education.)

Reading the above extract without knowing the subject, one would suppose that the "she" in question was a person, or at least an animal. Roethke, in fact, is talking about his potted geranium. Note how the geranium is feminine, "limp and bedraggled/ so foolish and trusting", all attributes that we give to people. Also, the relationship between the speaker and the subject seems so close, just as in a human situation. The geranium is a person in this context.