Personification Up - The Chicago Poetry Center

Personification Up

Last week, we read and discussed Federico Garcia Lorca’s “The Guitar.” In class, we’ve previously examined how some writers choose personification from among many literary devices. However, the title musical instrument isn’t the only thing with qualities or abilities that only humans have; “hot southern sands,” arrows, water, the wind, and also the evening are personified by Lorca. Students also focused on the intense emotions portrayed in the poem through “weeping,” “yearning,” and in its final two lines, a heart “mortally wounded / by five swords.”

For their own poems, they were instructed to use personification in whatever way they chose.

Ms. Yim 4th Grade

Untitled Jasiah B.

I need help I’m freezing.
I’m in the freezer all day.
I’m ice. I wish I was water again.
Ice crying and as soon as I’m freezing.
Ice cries, gets mad, getting even madder.
Ice breaks the door and melts.

Untitled Maria E.

Dear Maria you always
lose me your pencil.

I am your pencil.

You shouldn’t lose me.

It hurts when you
sharpen.

Sometimes I’m on the
floor, stolen or even eaten
by a dog!

Please give me
a break.

The Time Danny E.

The time was there on the watch.
It knows when it’s going to be late
or early. The watch loves to work
because he is on time for every time
but when he is sad he goes tick tock,
tick tock, tick tock, and when he is sleepy
he snores so loud that you can’t hear
your own watch ring.

Untitled Kaelyn L.

A book doesn’t cry.
A piece of paper isn’t shy.
An AC won’t be loud.
A fry won’t be angry.
A dog will be hangry.

Untitled Rania M.

I’m a pen. People use me to write.
Some people throw me in the garbage when
I don’t work.

Untitled Zoya P.

An apple
could not
cry a
banana
could
not jump.
A toy
could not
jump around.