Identify the most appropriate figure of speech used in the given phrase:
'Little sorrows sit and weep'
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Personification
Personification:
- Personification gives human qualities, feelings or actions to things that are not human, such as animals, objects or ideas.
- "Sorrows" are feelings, yet in this line they "sit and weep" like people.
Example: The wind howled angrily all night.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Hyperbole — Incorrect. Hyperbole is deliberate exaggeration; nothing in the line is exaggerated.
Example: I am so hungry I could eat a horse.
Option 2: Metaphor — Incorrect. A metaphor says that one thing is another; the sorrows are not called something else, they are given human actions.
Example: Life is a journey.
Option 3: Irony — Incorrect. Irony means saying the opposite of what one means, or an outcome opposite to what is expected; the line is meant sincerely.
Example: The fire station burnt down last night.
Contrast: personification gives human actions to something not human ("sorrows sit and weep"); a metaphor calls one thing another.