Answer:
Implied metaphor.
<em>"How they battered down
</em>
<em>Doors
</em>
<em>And ironed
</em>
<em>Starched white
</em>
<em>Shirts
</em>
<em>How they led
</em>
<em>Armies
</em>
<em>Headragged generals
</em>
<em>Across mined
</em>
<em>Fields
</em>
<em>Bo oby-trapped
</em>
<em>Ditches"</em>
Explanation:
Alice Walker's poem "Women" is a poem about women in general and how they fight for their children's right to education. The poem is written in short, at times, monosyllable lines, where the speaker talks of mothers and their hard work to get an education for their children.
Figurative languages are the elements of writing that writers employ in their writing to give more 'color' and 'body' to their work. And in this poem, Alice Walker uses an implied metaphor. This element can be seen in the lines
<em>How they battered down
</em>
<em>Doors
</em>
<em>And ironed
</em>
<em>Starched white
</em>
<em>Shirts
</em>
<em>How they led
</em>
<em>Armies
</em>
<em>Headragged generals
</em>
<em>Across mined
</em>
<em>Fields
</em>
<em>Bo oby-trapped
</em>
<em>Ditches</em>
Here, the speaker makes a comparison between the women/ mothers and several personalities like army generals, or army commanders, and other daily workers. These efforts by the mothers are for their children to <em>"discover books, desks, a place"</em> to get an education which they themselves weren't able to access.
Thus, the figurative language used in this poem is an implied metaphor.
