Function of Personification: Poetry Practice Test

In the following excerpt from an original poem narrated by someone grading late at night, what is the function of the personification in the bolded phrase?

Red pen uncaps like a small confession. Essays stack themselves into weather against my lamp’s tired circle. Outside, the campus is a dark aquarium. On my desk, the stapler yawns beside a heap of commas and excuses, and I keep counting mistakes as if they were stars I could rename.

In the following lines from an original poem about a couple arguing in a car during winter, what is the function of the personification in the bolded phrase?

The heater coughs out lukewarm breath. Streetlights smear across the windshield like fingerprints we can’t confess. Your silence sits between the seats. At the red light, the wipers argue with the sleet, back and forth, back and forth— a metronome for what we won’t say, until the glass gives up and blurs.