Final answer:
The speaker uses personification to describe creatures in the furniture, attributing human-like qualities to the knobs of a bureau and a chair, which implies a childhood imagination finding life in inanimate objects.
Step-by-step explanation:
The speaker describes the creatures in the furniture as having human-like traits, a literary device known as personification. For instance, the speaker recalls how the knobs of an old bureau seemed to have a 'kindly wink' and how one chair appeared like a 'strong friend,' suggesting a sense of protection and companionship.
This personification implies that the objects around the speaker serve as sources of entertainment, comfort, and even terror, as in the case with the menacing other things and the refuge found in the chair. The reason behind the speaker seeing creatures in the furniture might be attributed to a vivid imagination, possibly heightened during the speaker's childhood, allowing them to find life and expression in ordinary objects.