Answer:
Personification, if you're talking about figurative language.
Explanation:
Personification is a literary device that gives human-like qualities to something like an inanimate object, idea, or substance that doesn't have one in real life. In this case, silence, the subject of the sentence, cannot physically rule over the land. It can only do so figuratively and with a different meaning. In this phrase, silence "reigned" over the land means that the environment being described was very quiet.
Since there are 8 syllables in this line, that means that this is a 'tetrameter', meaning 4 meters. 1 meter = 2 syllables.
And since the sequence of accents is: first is the stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one, it means it is a 'trochee'.
So the answer is 'trochaic tetrameter'.
The topic—"Literary devices in American poetry"—would be a weak topic because such a topic is extremely vague and not specific enough.
American poetry uses many, MANY literary devices—and many of which are not unique to American poetry alone. Also, "American poetry" in general is too broad of topic.
D. The storm—it was the worst in years—caused several power outages. is the answer
