a few personifications

[alpacinou]

Do these personifications work?

1. The violin she was cradling in her arm was anxious. The hairs on the bow gently touched the strings and the violin wailed as if it were alive.
2. The flowers didn't feel at home among all the tacky ornaments. They felt uncomfortable.
3. The city was falling into despair.

 

[emsr2d2]

1 is very odd.
2 is OK, though I can't explain why I think flowers can be uncomfortable but a violin can't be anxious.
3 isn't an example of personification.

 

[Tarheel]

I don't think either musical instruments or plants have feelings.

 

[alpacinou]

1 is very odd.
2 is OK, though I can't explain why I think flowers can be uncomfortable but a violin can't be anxious.
3 isn't an example of personification.

Okay. What about this?

1. She was cradling a reddish violin, anxious to begin. The hairs on the bow gently touched the strings and the violin wailed as if it were alive.

Why is it not personification to say a city falls into despair?

 

[emsr2d2]

Okay. What about this?

1. She was cradling a reddish violin, anxious to begin. The hairs on the bow gently touched the strings and the violin wailed as if it were alive.

That's much better. It's clear that she is anxious, not the violin. The personification of the violin works with "as if it were alive".

Why is it not personification to say a city falls into despair?

I apologise. I read sentence 3 as "was falling into disrepair". You're right that "falling into despair" is an example of personification.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Do these anthropomorphisms work?

1. The violin she was cradling in her arm was anxious. The hairs on the bow gently touched the strings and the violin wailed as if it were alive.
2. The flowers didn't feel at home among all the tacky ornaments. They felt uncomfortable.
3. The city was falling into despair.

The first two would only work in a Disney-like context where internal life of inanimate objects is clearly established.

The third can be read to refer to the people of the city, as a group.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I apologise. I read sentence 3 as "was falling into disrepair". You're right that "falling into despair" is an example of personification.

I made the same mistake.

We're just too used to cities falling into disrepair!

 

[Tarheel]

I remember a line from a poem I wrote. (See below.)

The fog has a sense of humor. It laughs when I bump into a tree.

 

[alpacinou]

I remember a line from a poem I wrote. (See below.)

The fog has a sense of humor. It laughs when I bump into a tree.

And the Nobel Prize for literature goes to the one and only Tarheel.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

By the way, do you see the difference between how personify and anthropomorphize are used?

- Mother Teresa personified charity.

- Motor vehicles don't really talk. Disney just anthropomorphized them in Cars.

 

[alpacinou]

By the way, do you see the difference between how personify and anthropomorphize are used?

- Mother Teresa personified charity.

- Motor vehicles don't really talk. Disney just anthropomorphized them in Cars.

I think personification is sort of about creating imagery. Anthropomorphization is about giving human traits to non-human objects.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I think personification is sort of about creating imagery. Anthropomorphization is about giving human traits to non-human objects.

Thanks. I just looked up personify.

The primary definition is the one I think of: use a person to represent a quality.

But the secondary definition is how you used it. It means the same thing as antrhopomorphize: assign human qualities to something that isn't human.

So even though I've never heard it used that way, you used it correctly.

Sorry! Now I know.

 

[emsr2d2]

Good point! My brain said "anthropomorphise" when I read the original post and I then failed to make any mention of it in my response.