What is it called when a poet directly addresses a person or thing that cannot respond?

A.

personification

B.

metaphor

C.

apostrophe

D.

assonance

A. personification

personification is giving a human characteristic to a nonhuman object

The correct answer is C. apostrophe.

Apostrophe is a figure of speech in which an author (usually a poet, but sometimes a writer as well), refers to someone who is not present, and talks to them, invokes them, but they cannot respond (as they are not there).

Personification is when non-human entities/objects have human characteristics; metaphor is a symbolical comparison; assonance is when vowels in neighboring words are repeated.