From the given options, select the Figure of Speech (Poetic Device) u…

The correct answer is Option (4) → Metaphor

Metaphor:

• A metaphor says that one thing is another to bring out a likeness between them, without "like" or "as".
• The comparison is implied, not stated openly as in a simile.
• This line (from Shakespeare's play "As You Like It"): the world is called a stage, because people enter, play their parts and leave, as actors do.
  Example: The teacher said that the classroom was a garden and the children its flowers.

Why the Other Options are Incorrect?

Option 1: Personification — Incorrect. Personification gives human qualities to a thing. Here the world is not given a human action; it is compared to a stage.
Example: The wind howled all night.

Option 2: Simile — Incorrect. A simile would say the world is "like" a stage. The line says it is a stage, so it is a metaphor.
Example: Life is like a journey.

Option 3: Alliteration — Incorrect. Alliteration repeats the same opening consonant sound in nearby words; the line has no such repetition.
Example: The big brown bear slept in the cave.

Contrast: a metaphor says the world is a stage; a simile would say the world is like a stage.