Read the excerpt from "A Modest Proposal." A very worthy person, a true lover of his country, and whose virtues I highly esteem,
was lately pleased, in discoursing on this matter, to offer a refinement upon my scheme. He said, that many gentlemen of this kingdom, having of late destroyed their deer, he conceived that the want of venison might be well supply'd by the bodies of young lads and maidens, not exceeding fourteen years of age, nor under twelve; so great a number of both sexes in every country being now ready to starve for want of work and service. Which statement best describes Swift’s use of rhetorical devices in this excerpt?
In the given excerpt from "A Modest Proposal" Swift had used irony. The irony is one of the rhetorical devices in which the opposite is meant what is spoken. In the above excerpt, the irony is used when the speaker says "very worthy person" and "true lover of his country". This is an ironical statement because a person who possesses these qualities would never be the one using the children to get food supplies.
