: Re: 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

@Debbie451

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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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