STRATEGY THIRTEEN
Personification as Design Device

Some Background

Personification, a subtype of metaphor, is a figure of speech attributing human characteristics to abstractions or inanimate objects: “The sun smiled on the Memorial Day parade”; “Illiteracy is robbing us of future leaders”; “Inflation is eating up the profits.”

Some Lyric Line Examples

Personification is most frequently heard in lyrics in one-liners such as these by Oscar Hammerstein–for whom the device was a favorite: “The wind got confidential and whispered through a tree”; “The world will open its arms to me”; “The soft mist of England was sleeping on a hill.”

Some Song Examples

As a design strategy, personification takes two forms. The basic form is one in which an abstraction/place/thing is referred to in third person as if human. For example, in “The Summer Knows” (Bergmans/Legrand) summer is personified as a woman who “smiles/knows/dresses/sheds her clothes.” Similarly, in “The Last Time I Saw Paris” (Kern/Hammerstein), Paris was a “lady… romantic and charming” whose “laughter” was “heard in every street café.” And then, there is perhaps the grandaddy of all personification songs, “Ol' Man River” (Kern/Hammerstein).

The second and more dramatic form takes personification to the ultimate: the singer becomes the thing personified.

In the C-section of “Bali Ha'i,” Oscar Hammerstein makes an intriguing transition from having the singer talk about the special island to having the singer become the island, “… Someday you'll hear me call you … come to me, come to me.”

Two distinguished songs that take the strategy all the way are “(I'm the train they call) The City of New Orleans” (Goodman) and “(I am music and) I Write the Songs” (Johnston). It is this form of the device that I encourage you to try.

The Strategy's Advantage

When you choose to transform your singer into an inanimate object or abstraction, you give yourself an ability to treat nonhuman entities in terms of human characteristics, activities and motivations. Personification thus expands your lyric themes by providing an oblique approach to subjects–as you will shortly see in two student examples.

Narrowing Your Focus

There are, of course, a limitless number of abstractions or objects which can be personified. Narrowing the range of options will make your choice easier. I suggest, for your initial experience in becoming something nonhuman, that you personify some category of building–or a particular famous building or edifice. This aspect of personification usually sparks a uniquely individual statement from a writer.

Prewriting Suggestion

As you know, making lists is a productive way to activate certain kinds of lyric concepts. This kind of list will get you into a realistic, factual focused left-brain frame of mind. In your idea notebook write down as many categories of buildings or particular names of famous buildings/edifices that spring to mind–supermarket, jail, courthouse, silo, school, the Pentagon, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Sphinx, and so on. To get one good idea requires getting a lot of ideas, so try to fill the whole page. This process generally yields a word that links you to a theme that excites you.

When you've got your theme–let the concept incubate. Walk around with it, sleep on it. Ask yourself key questions using the first person: What am I made of? Where am I located? How old am I? Who lives or works in me–or visits me? Am I open during the day, at night, on weekends? Try to feel the answers. Experience the building. Become the building.

Then ask yourself, “What one emotion do I want my audience to feel?” When you know the answer, you are ready to begin the lyric. Here's a little trick to help you stay focused: Write at the top of your lyric sheet a short sentence summarizing the single point you want to make. Looking up at it occasionally will keep you on the subject.

Small Craft Warning

When personifying an abstraction/place/thing, it is, of course, appropriate to attribute any of the many human emotions to your subject–elation, envy, conflict, pride, and so on. But it is not appropriate to attribute characteristics or properties to your subject that it does not possess–as some first drafts by students have done. For example, an office building does not wear a red brick vest; a heartache does not own luggage. Make sure your personification passes that reality check I spoke about–that it makes no metaphoric claim for its subject that does not check with reality.

A second important caveat: Your audience's enjoyment of the song requires that they know, right from the beginning, who is doing the talking. So be very sure to make the singer's identity clear by the second line of the first verse. Here are two student examples that do the job well.

Personification: Example No. 1 (Verse/Climb/Chorus)
ONLY LOVE CAN MAKE THIS HOUSE A HOME

I've been cold, dark and empty
Since my old owners divorced
But I used to be the house of their dreams
With my modem country kitchen
And sunken living room
And my ornamental plants and evergreens.

Then you brightened up my morning
With an orange moving van.
I'm glad you and your wife are here to stay.
'Cause I'd almost forgotten
The warmth of family.
You gave me a new lease on life today.

Now our first night together's full of unfamiliar sounds
But I'm really looking forward to having you around

To share the joy of loving laughter
As it echoes off the walls
And to keep love's fire burning
In the bedroom down the hall.
Without love I've been a prison
Made of plasterboard and stone, 'cause
ONLY LOVE CAN MAKE THIS HOUSE A HOME.
Yes, ONLY LOVE CAN MAKE THIS HOUSE A HOME.

I heard you tell the neighbors
'Bout your renovation plans
To tear out all my crystal chandeliers,
And change the color of the kitchen,
And enclose the swimming pool
With a six-foot cedar fence across the rear.

But these so-called home improvements are meaningless to me.
All this house ever needed was a caring family

(repeat chorus)
© 1988 Rick Swiegoda. Used with permission.

Comment

That's what I mean by become the building. Concrete images, colors, sounds and textures animate the lyric: evergreens, orange van, crystal chandelier, laughter, cedar, stone. By drawing on the device of personification, Rick Swiegoda was able to express his personal values and deliver an anti-materialistic message in a fresh and original manner.

Personification: Example No. 2 (Verse/Bridge/Chorus)
DON'T THREATEN LIBERTY

I've been standin' out here
In New York harbor,
Shinin' with joy
For a hundred years,
Holdin' my torch,
Torch of liberty
High to light the world.
Now what do I find

The military mind proposin'?:
To slip a nuclear fleet
In at my feet.

DON'T THREATEN LIBERTY—
Don't close in on me.
Keep these waters free.
DON'T THREATEN LIBERTY—
Don't threaten me.

For I'm puttin' my trust in life—
In the voices of the earth.
We have such power to be free.

I want to stand out here
In New York harbor,
A beacon of hope
For ages to come,
Beamin' my light
On the children,
Dreamers of ev'ry land.
So don't harbor death,
Don't harbor death for a moment.
To this fleet I say, “No!”
This fleet's got to go.

DON'T THREATEN LIBERTY—
Don't close in on me
Keep these waters free.
DON'T THREATEN LIBERTY—
Don't threaten me.
Keep these waters,
These wonderful waters, free.
^© 1985 Sue Stater. Used with permission.

Comment

The passionate anti-nuke statement was Sue Stater's response to a current event. Her message was rendered more effective coming from the voice of the Statue of Liberty than through her own. The song, performed by the writer/artist, won first place in a contest sponsored by the Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Harbor. “Don't Threaten Liberty,” along with “Fox” (Comment) and 16 more of Sue Stater's socially-conscious songs are available on the CD “The Spirit Rises: The Songs of Sue Stater.” All proceeds are donated to The Animal Legal Defense Fund.

WrapUp

I hope these examples of personification will serve to suggest a way to approach subjects that you might not otherwise tackle. As you can see, the device can be especially useful in handling serious themes and social statements. Whenever a subject seems to defy treatment, consider becoming a lawyer's yellow pad, the judge's gavel, a taxi meter, a fly on the wall….