Metaphor or Personification
Recently, on a school test, I was given a poem comprehension. One of the questions was :
What is the figure of speech in "...the trees start whispering among themselves? (A) Metaphor (B) Simile (C) Personification (D) Onomotopoeia
I ruled out Onomotopoeia and Simile but was confused between the other two. I told my teacher that it is Metaphor as the rustling of trees is indirectly compared to whispering but she said that it is Personification as trees are given a human quality. What should it be?
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1 answer
It is personification.
Simile and metaphor are both comparing X to Y, but in different ways.
A simile always uses "like" or "as": "The rustling of the branches was like trees whispering to each other."
A metaphor uses symbolism. It's something which can't be literal: "Their hissing gossip was the rustle of tree branches: indistinct, indecipherable, far above my head."
Personification (sometimes known as anthropomorphism) is ascribing human actions and/or motivations to non-human actors or objects: "The trees whispered." (Trees have no mouths or ears, so they can't whisper.)
Onomatopoeia is when a word sounds like the sound it's describing: bark, boing, whoosh, hiss. [edited to fix ridiculous error]
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