Question

The following stanza from John Donne’s poem, “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning,” is known for its use of what poetic device?

“If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two;
Thy soul the fixed foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th’other do.”


A. Alliteration
B. Consonance
C. Conceit
D. Caesura

I think it's c, but it could also be a.

EDIT: nevermind, i marked c and got it right, so if anyone needed this answer, the answer is c. 

Answer 1

i think it is alliteration, but i may be wrong. I am pretty sure that it is not c, but, then again, I may be wrong.

Answer 2

Answer: I would contend that the right answer is the C) Conceit.

Explanation: Just to elaborate a little on the answer, it can be added that by comparing his soul and that of his lover to two fixed compasses, the speaker in this poem is using a conceit, which is a figure of speech that establishes a witty comparison between two differing things or situations—much like a simile or a metaphor. As a metaphysical poet, John Donne (1572-1631) often made brilliant and ingenious comparisons or established analogies between physical objects and inmaterial or spiritual things, such as the compasses and the souls in this stanza. This is called a metaphysical conceit. Two souls are like two stiff compasses, which only move in unison—if one moves then the other moves too.