Question
Read the following excerpt from Second Inaugural Address and answer the question.
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, urgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.
What literary device does Lincoln use when he tries to connect Northerners and Southerners in the following quote?
“…but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish”
Metonymy
Alliteration
Parallel structure
Simile
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, urgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.
What literary device does Lincoln use when he tries to connect Northerners and Southerners in the following quote?
“…but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish”
Metonymy
Alliteration
Parallel structure
Simile
Answers
GPT-4o mini
The literary device Lincoln uses in the quote, “…but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish,” is **parallel structure**. This device is evident in the similar grammatical structure of the two clauses, which helps to emphasize the contrasting positions of the two parties regarding the war.