Answer:
Your answer would be that the sentence contains an example of personification.
Step-by-step explanation:
Figurative language makes use of figures of speech to be more effective. What is more, figurative language includes several literary devices and techniques: simile, metaphor, oxymoron, etc.
In the passage above, the author uses personification. Personification is a figure of speech in which an idea or thing is given human feelings or attributes. That is to say, human characteristics are attributed to nonhuman things. For instance, in this case, words died and guilty grin are examples of personification. Words cannot die because they are not human and a beard does not have the volition to be guilty. However, in both cases, words and beard have been assigned these features as if they were capable of going through them just as we humans do.