Personification is when the speaker or write gives human characteristics, qualities, or traits to an object or Idea. In other words, an object or idea is described by the speaker or write in a way that could only be applied literally to a person. To put it even simpler,personification is when an object or idea does something that only people do. Though animals are often given human traits and characteristics in poems and stories (such as in fables), when this technique is applied to animals it is more appropriately called "anthropomorphism," not personification.