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Difficulty: MediumLiterary Devices and Figurative Language

Consider the poetic lines below:

'The silent battlefield lay cold and still,
Where restless iron had claimed its final yield,
And brave men slept beneath the windy hill.'

In the second line, what figure of speech is demonstrated by the word 'iron' to refer to weapons of war?

  1. A
    Synecdoche
  2. MetonymyAnswer
  3. C
    Personification
  4. D
    Metaphor

Answer

Metonymy
Metonymy occurs when an attribute, constituent material, or associated concept stands in for the object itself. In this excerpt, the material 'iron' is used to represent the weapons crafted from it.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the highlighted word in the poetic line
The word 'iron' refers directly to swords, spears, or weapons used in battle.
The line describes battlefield casualties caused by metallic weaponry.
2
Determine the relationship between the literal word and its contextual meaning
'Iron' is the primary material out of which traditional weapons were forged.
Substituting a related attribute, material, or container for the thing itself is the defining characteristic of metonymy.

Key Concept

Metonymy in Literary Context
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Topics

Literary Devices and Figurative Language

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