Poetic+Devices



=**LESSER SHADOWS** = **Robert Priest**
 * From:** //The Visible Man//. Toronto: Unfinished Monument Press, 1980.

the buildings wait for the assassins

the shadows are prepared for them— they flow like dark sheets of blood from underneath the doors

there are many vacant rooms many rifles waiting

soon the assassins begin to arrive they are all a little crazy moved by politics or dark desires they are tense and frightened but eager, jostling one another for places at the windows

there are assassins behind bushes assassins on roofs <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">and distant hilltops <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">there are so many assassins <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">there are assassins crouched <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">in shadows of assassins

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">it is good that the victim is young <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">and wealthy. it is good that <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">he seems to symbolize something

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">now they prepare their weaponry <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">his car goes by <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">the triggers click <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">a thousand bullets meet <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">inside a single head <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">the skull explodes <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">the president is dead

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">silently, some with spittle running <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">from the corners of their mouths, <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">some dazed, as though awaking from a trance <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">the assassins file out of the buildings <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">past the shocked, staring faces to the highways <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">past the farthest edges of the sun's descending red <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">and, as night absorbs the lesser shadows <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">America absorbs her murderers <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px;">completely

<span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__Hyperbole__ An exaggeration, used to enphisize a point or idea. Ex. He waited forever. <span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__Alliteration__ The repeating of the first letter sound in a group of words. Ex. The bumbling bothered boring black bears <span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__Rhythm & Rhyme__ A grouping of sounds of words to create a beat, used to captivate the listener. Ex. Wait till I get my money right, you cant tell me nothing right. <span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__Metaphor__ A compairison, used to show the importance of something. Ex. Juliet is the sun. <span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__Analogy__ To find a similarity between two things. Ex.There is an analogy between your heart and a pump. <span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__Repetition__ The use of one word more than once to emphisize the importance of something, or for description. Ex. The branch scratch, scratch, scratched on the window. <span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__Personification__ To give a non-living object a human trait. Ex. The sun smiled joyfully over the dancing grass. <span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__Allusion__ A reference to a related or known object Ex. All roads lead to Rome. (not literally to Rome) <span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__Oxymoron__ A figure of speech that has conflict with itself, or two different words to describe something. Ex She had massively tiny eyes. <span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__Euphemism__ To politely or explain in a subtle way. Ex. the term "pass away" insted of "to die" <span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__Imagery__ Words together to create an image in your mind Ex. Think of "rolling hills" and you may also imagine green hills although that isnt described. <span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__Irony__ A response or happening that is the opposite of what is meant or should happen. Ex. A firetruck on fire. <span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__Malapropis____m__ A word that sounds like something but means something different Ex. Seeing you perfectly with my ice (insted of eyes) <span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__Onomatopoeia__ Used to imitate sounds. Ex. The car went Zoooomm! <span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__Satire__ Used to make fun of something else Ex. Scary Movie makes fun of horror movies. <span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__Simile__ A compairison of two things using the words "like" or "as" between Ex. The tree was as big as the house. <span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__Symbol__ Something that expresses a different meaning than it may seem. Ex. A dove flew ahead. (dove symbolizes peace) <span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__Theme__ <span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">The basic reason a poem was created <span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">Some poems have the theme of war or love