Personification Poems
A creative style of poetry that can get your class writing and thinking poetically.
By Tracey Rouse
Exposing your students to poetry and great poets provides for a rich learning experience. One of the best ways you can do this is through personification poetry. Although it can be challenging to get your young poets to write this type of poem, I have found that the process goes a lot smoother when you expose them to a wide variety of poetry first. Then, they will know about poetic devices and figurative language before they begin writing.
Beginning a Poetry Personification Unit
When I start a personification unit, I first write the definition of personification on the board.
- Personification: Giving human characteristics to everyday ideas, objects, and animals
Next, we take some time to have a class discussion where we talk about some examples of personification. I like to read aloud several books that have good examples of this concept, including The Nose by Catherine Cowan, Call Me Ahnighito by Pam Conrad and Richard Egielski, and Night Noises by Mem Fox. After the read alouds are finished, we re-examine some of the ideas discussed at the beginning of the lesson, and I ask individuals to identify examples of personification in the stories I read. I usually ask a few students to write some sentences from the stories which exemplify personification on chart paper. Then, as a class, we underline the object, animal, or idea that is being personified, and circle the example of personification in the sentence. This drill really reinforces the idea of personification.
Creating Personal Personification Poems
After the initial introduction and discussion of personification, I find that everybody is usually quite anxious to create their own poems. There are two ways I go about this. The first way is to brainstorm a list of nouns about nature (tree, sun, moon, etc.) and create another list of action verbs (dances, sways, sings, etc.). Then I model how to use the two lists as a tool to expand their ideas into full sentences. For example, “The sun dances across the water.” Individuals are then invited to create a sentence on their own.
The second way I have found helpful in getting young poets started is to create color poems by using the book Hailstones and Halibut Bones by Mary O'Neill. This book has several beautiful poems personifying color. After reading the book, I ask students to use their senses and describe the color blue. By using the writing prompt, “Blue is...” I conduct an interactive writing lesson, which results in a beautiful personification poem about the color blue. Here is an example:
Blue is calm as the sky on a summer day,
Blue is sadness in your heart,
Blue is cold, a frozen lake during winter,
Blue is sweet and juicy, like blueberries in my mouth.
Extend Your Personification Poetry Lesson
After modeling the process with them, and having everyone create some sample sentences, I have students use their writer’s notebooks to create their own creative color poems. In order to get everyone involve, I allow time in class, and also extra credit for poems written at home. Even some of my most reluctant writers are quite prolific in their personification and color poems! Try it, and find yourself enjoying the results. Below you will find a few more lesson ideas.
Additional Lessons on Personification Poems:
Scholars read the book The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo and type personification poems in Microsoft Word. Then they may illustrate their poems using clipart.
Review of Personification and Alliteration
Pupils read several stories and review the concept of personification. Next, they create their own personification poem.
The class reads the book, Hailstones and Halibut Bones, and then each learner creates his own color poem.