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Personification & Onomatopoeia

Session 8

Personification is giving human qualities, feelings, action, or characteristics to inanimate (non-living) objects.

For example: The window winked at me. The verb, wink, is a human action. A window is an inaminate object. Therefore, we have a good example of personification.

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Personification Worksheet

Poetry Worksheet #3

On the line below each example, write the object being personified and the meaning of the personification.

1. The wind sang her mournful song through the falling leaves.

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2. The cars tyres protested as we roared around the corner.

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3. The video camera observed the whole scene.

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4. The strawberries seemed to sing, "Eat me first!"

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5. The rain kissed my cheeks as it fell.

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6. The daffodils nodded their yellow heads at the walkers.

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7. The water beckoned invitingly to the hot swimmers.

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8. The snow whispered as it fell to the ground during the early morning hours.

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9. The china danced on the shelves during the earthquake.

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10. The car engine coughed and sputtered as we struggled to start it.

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Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is the imitation of natural sounds in word form. These words help us form mental pictures about the things, people, or places that are described. Sometimes the word names a thing or action by copying the sound. For example: Bong! Hiss! Buzz!

In your poetry group brainstorm for approximately 5 minutes. List all the onomatopoeia words that you can. Swap lists with another group. The other group should write a person's name, a place or a thing that first comes to their mind when they hear the word.

Write 5 descriptive sentences that contain at least one example of onomatopoeia.

Rewrite the sentences and put a blank where the onomatopoeia word is located. Exchange the paper with a neighbor and fill in the blank with an onomatopoeia word. Compare the sentences. See if you changed the meaning of the sentence.

Bring in two pictures from magazines that show action. Write a paragraph that describes the action and include as many onomatopoeia words as you can. In your poetry groups let the author read their paragraph. See if the others can choose the picture that the author was describing.