Honors English Semester Practice Exam

The main technique here is apostrophe. The speaker directly addresses Death as if it could hear and respond, using the vocative “O Death,” which marks a direct call to a listener who is not actually present. That direct invocation is the defining feature of apostrophe. Death is also given human-like qualities here, a touch of personification, but the key device is the act of speaking to an absent being as if it could engage with the speaker. It’s not a metaphor, which would be a direct comparison without addressing anyone, and it’s not irony, which hinges on a contrast between appearance and reality.