Question

By highlighting absence in these lines from a poem, which technique is used to add emotional intensity?

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells!
Rise up! for you the flag is flung, for you the bugle trills:
For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths; for you the shores a-crowding:
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning.

O Captain! dear father!
This arm I push beneath you.
It is some dream that on the deck
You've fallen cold and dead!
(from "Oh Captain! My Captain" by Walt Whitman)

choices

repetition
assonance
personification
simile

Answer 1

I am pretty sure that device which is used to add emotional intensity in the excerpt is repetition. As for me, such appeal to captain is used to persuade the reader to pay attention and create thrilling tone. I hope you find it helpful.