Personification

Any Old Kind of Day by Harry Chapin

Turning on my pillow, thinking kind of strange.
The color is of midnight in this room.
The cars outside are coughing and it's kind of hard to sleep
and there's neon out the window, not the moon.
And it was just an any old kind of day,
The kind that comes and slips away,
The kind that fills up easy my life's time.
The night brought any old kind of dark,
I heard the ticking of my heart.
Then why'm I thinking somethings left behind?
I whistled round today and I skipped off a footloose jig
to the hurdy gurdy music of the street.
I looked past those rooftops and I saw the cloudless sky,
But I keep on asking why my life is passing by,
And I'm left up high and dry,
But it ain't no good to cry,
So I shrug my useless sigh,
And I trust to things that other days will meet.
And it was just an any old kind of day,
The kind that comes and slips away,
The kind that fills up easy my life's time.
The night brought any old kind of dark,
I heard the ticking of my heart.
Then why'm I thinking somethings left behind?
The night has had it's laughing,
when the street lights blind the stars,
So now it's shedding rain to sing it's sorrow,
It's time for me to sleep and to rest these thoughts away,
There's gonna be another day,
hey!when things will go my way,
And there's other things to say,
And there's other songs to play,
And there'll be time enough for thinking come tomorrow.
And it was just an any old kind of day,
The kind that comes and slips away,
The kind that fills up easy my life's time.
The night brought any old kind of dark,
I heard the ticking of my heart.
Then why'm I thinking somethings left behind


In the bolded examples, use of personification is used for effect. It gives these objects human qualities that these objects do not/ can not possess. In this song, cars can not caugh and the night can not laugh. By using these examples of personification, the song has great descriptive value and effect.




The Times They are A Changin' By Bob Dylan

Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s naming.’
For the loser now will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’.
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.


This song has less obvious accounts of personification. For example, it suggests that waters can grow like people mature, which is not what really happens, thus giving it human qualities. Also, the song says that the battle will shake your walls, which it physically could, but not with the intention that humans would. Also, it suggests that a road ages like people age.