But with due deference to so excellent a friend, and so deserving a patriot, i cannot be altogether in his sentiments; for as to the males, my american acquaintance assured me from frequent experience, that their flesh was generally tough and lean, like that of our school-boys, by continual exercise, and their taste disagreeable, and to fatten them would not answer the charge. –“a modest proposal,” jonathan swift which statement best describes swift’s use of rhetorical devices in this passage? swift uses understatement when he says that irish boys get “continual exercise”; the boys must endure hard labor on farms. swift uses understatement when he calls his friend “so deserving a patriot”; his friend is much more patriotic than swift suggests. swift uses verbal irony when he calls his friend a “patriot”; a true patriot would not suggest using ireland’s children for food. swift uses verbal irony when he says that irish school boys get a lot of exercise; in reality, they do not get much exercise.