Personification

personification, a *FIGURE OF SPEECH by which animals, abstract
ideas, or inanimate things are referred to as if they were human, as in Sir Philip Sidney's line:
Invention, Nature's child, fled stepdame Study's blows
This figure or *TROPE, known in Greek as prosopopoeia, is common in most ages of poetry, and particularly in the 18th century. It has a special function as the basis of *ALLEGORY. In drama, the term is sometimes applied to the impersonation of non-human things and ideas by human actors.
[Chris_Baldick]_The_Concise_Oxford_Dictionary_of_L(BookFi.org)