Which figure of speech is used in this text?
Soft language issued from their spittleless lips as they swished in slow circles round and round the field.
—James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

 - chiasmus
 - assonance
The text uses assonance, the repetition of a vowel sound in a series of nearby words.
The words issued, spittleless, lips, swished, and in share a vowel sound.