Personification: The act of giving a human quality or characteristic to something which is not human (i.e., animals and objects). If a writer imagines an animal or object to possess human qualities (including emotions, actions, character traits, etc.), then it’s personification.
Anthropomorphism: Showing or treating animals, gods, and objects as if they were human in appearance. If an animal or object actually behaves like a human being, then it’s anthropomorphism.
A simile and a metaphor are both figures of speech used to make comparisons between things, but they differ in the way they do it.
A simile is a comparison between two things using “like” or “as”. For example, “Her hair was as black as coal” or “He fought like a lion”. In a simile, the two things being compared remain distinct and separate.
A metaphor, on the other hand, is a comparison between two things that suggests that one thing is the other. For example, “The world is a stage” or “Love is a rose”. In a metaphor, the two things being compared are merged together to create a new image or idea.
In summary, a simile uses “like” or “as” to compare two things while keeping them separate, while a metaphor compares two things by suggesting that one thing is the other.
The term figurative language covers a wide range of literary devices and techniques – here are some examples:
The opposite of figurative language is literal language. Creative writing employs rich examples of figurative language to communicate better meaning while writing an academic text is best when language is literal. When writing poetry, for instance, stick to (a metaphor) primarily figurative language.
My suggestion would be to find examples of each of the following literary devices listed above and begin to practice matching each to their respective type: simile, metaphor, personification, onomatopoeia, oxymoron, hyperbole, allusion, idiom, imagery, symbolism, alliteration, assonance, consonance, metonymy, synecdoche, irony, sarcasm, litotes, pun, anaphora, tautology, and understatement.
Benjamin L. Stewart 