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Literary notes about Personify (AI summary)

Literature often employs the term "personify" to imbue nonhuman entities with human traits, making abstract ideas or inanimate objects relatable and vivid. Authors may give life to entire cities or natural elements, as when a female figure is used to embody Baltimore [1] or when the very roads acquire a spark of consciousness [2]. In this way, immaterial concepts—ranging from abstract notions like justice and fate [3, 4] to elemental forces of nature [5]—are transformed into characters with personality and agency. This creative technique serves to bridge the gap between the abstract and the tangible, allowing readers to engage with powerful symbols that encapsulate the essence of human experience and cultural values [6, 7].
  1. It is a female figure, intended to personify the city of Baltimore.
    — from The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, Vol. 2 (of 2) or, Illustrations, by Pen And Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the War for Independence by Benson John Lossing
  2. It is in keeping with the imagery of these poems which personify the city, to endow the very roads with fancied consciousness.
    — from The Expositor's Bible: The Song of Solomon and the Lamentations of Jeremiah by Walter F. (Walter Frederic) Adeney
  3. Now that we know the nature of justice and injustice, let us make an image of the soul, which will personify his words.
    — from The Republic of Plato by Plato
  4. In him Fate seemed to personify life's revenges, its futilities, its calculating ironies.
    — from The Battle of the Strong: A Romance of Two Kingdoms — Volume 6 by Gilbert Parker
  5. You do not personify the hills, but the hills personify you.
    — from Destiny by Charles Neville Buck
  6. They not only illustrate abundantly from nature and real things in life; they nearly always individualize and personify their ideas.
    — from Special Method in the Reading of Complete English ClassicsIn the Grades of the Common School by Charles A. (Charles Alexander) McMurry
  7. Works on heathen mythology show that it was anciently a very prevalent custom to personify ideas, thoughts and words into angels and Gods.
    — from The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors; Or, Christianity Before Christ by Kersey Graves

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