Question

select the correct answer.
read this excerpt from \the open boat\ by stephen crane:

the correspondent looked over his shoulder at the captain. his face was hidden, and he seemed to be asleep. he looked at the babes of the sea.
they certainly were asleep. so, being bereft of sympathy, he leaned a little way to one side and swore softly into the sea.
which figure of speech is used in the phrase \babes of the sea\?

a. pace

b. simile

c. diction

d. metaphor

e. syntax

Explanation:

First, eliminate non-figure of speech options: A (pace is a literary device for rhythm), C (diction is word choice), E (syntax is sentence structure). A simile uses "like" or "as" to compare two things, which is not present here. A metaphor directly describes one thing as another, and "babes of the sea" directly refers to sea creatures/waves as infants without a comparative marker, fitting this definition.

Answer:

D. metaphor