Question

select the correct answer.
which literary device does sir philip sidney use in these lines from his sonnet sequence astrophil and stella?
when nature made her chief work, stella’s eyes,
in colour black why wrapp’d she beams so bright?

○ a. parallelism
○ b. simile
○ c. metaphor
○ d. hyperbole

Explanation:

1. Parallelism: This requires repeated grammatical structures, which are not present here.
2. Simile: This uses "like" or "as" to compare two things, which is not used here.
3. Metaphor: The lines directly equate Stella's eyes to "Nature's chief work" (a masterpiece) and refer to her gaze as "beams," making a non-literal comparison without connecting words.
4. Hyperbole: This is extreme exaggeration, and while the praise is strong, the core literary device is the direct comparison of her eyes to a great work of nature.

Answer:

C. metaphor