Which line illustrates personification?

• A. The wind whispered through the trees.
• B. The wind blew fiercely.
• C. The wind shaped the hill.
• D. The wind sighed softly.

Answer: (A)

Personification is when you treat something nonhuman as if it could think, feel, or act like a person. In this line, the wind is described as whispering through the trees. Whispering is a human action tied to speech, so giving that action to the wind makes the wind seem as if it can speak, which is exactly what personification does. The other lines describe wind doing things—blowing, shaping the hill, sighing—but they don’t as clearly grant a human trait like speech. The line with whisper conveys a direct, human-like behavior, creating a vivid image of the wind as if it were speaking.