Which term denotes a passage in a speech or poem addressed to an absent or personified thing?

• A. Personification
• B. Apostrophe
• C. Epistle
• D. Modalism

Answer: (B)

A direct address to an absent person or to a nonhuman thing is called apostrophe. In this device, the speaker speaks to someone or something that isn’t there or to an abstract or personified object as if it could respond. That heightened moment of direct address is what makes the passage fall under apostrophe. For contrast, personification involves giving human traits to nonhuman things, but it doesn’t necessarily involve directly addressing them. Epistle is simply a letter written in verse or prose, not a direct speech to someone absent. Modalism is unrelated to literary devices and describes a theological concept. So the passage described fits apostrophe best.