What kind of figure of speech is that?
This kind of figure of speech is called a metaphor, SHE (the aunt) is compared in appearance by the author to the poplars (which are pale coloured trees) and thus the author is telling us that the aunts anemia makes her pale like the poplars in her garden. The whole paragraph (not just the capitals) is called prosaic writing, it also comes under the heading narrative since a narrator is telling a story. There may be better or more accurate descriptions of this kind of figure of speech but that’s the limit of my English literature and language lessons that I can remember.
