Explain metaphors and personifications.

Metaphor and personification are forms of figurative language. You will see both used frequently in poetry and prose when the author is attempting to create an evocative image to help convey his or her point, or to describe something. Personification is, in fact, a subset of metaphor, but is usually identified separately in literary analysis.
A metaphor is a comparative figure of speech in which something is described as if it were something else—not like something else, as in a simile, but simply something else. So, for example:
a) Simile: The moon was like a round cheese in the sky.
b) Metaphor: The round cheese of the moon was a pale yellow.
In both the simile and the metaphor, as you can see, the same comparison is made, but the metaphor only implies the comparison, rather than making it explicit.
In personification, something which is not animate, or incapable of having thoughts or feelings, is given human attributes and motivations. We might personify death, for example, or time—abstract concepts. Or, to continue on our theme, we might personify the moon.
The easiest way to spot personification is often when the author has used "his" and "her" instead of "its" (e.g., Death took up his scythe). But there are subtler forms of personification, too. If we say that the moon was laughing down at us, this is personification of the moon, which cannot really laugh. It is laughing metaphorically. Laughter is something we associate with humans. Therefore, this is an example of personification, which is itself a type of metaphor.
To sum up: personification and metaphor are connected, but while personification is a type of metaphor, not all metaphor is personification.