In the phrase "A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun" from Yeats' poem "The Second Coming," which stylistic device is the author using to create an image in the reader's mind?
A. foreshadowing, by predicting a cataclysmic event
B. alliteration, by calling the reader's attention to the power of the sun
C. verbal irony, by contrasting the sun's brightness with the dull stare of the sphinx
D. simile, by comparing the stare of the sphinx to the sun