put on your wolfskin / cloak, become the wolf yourself.
-- Speaker (Lines 7-8)

Importance: This line uses parallelism and inversion to create a formal sounding rhythm appropriate to the subject. The words “your wolf” and “wolf your” are inverted with “self” and “skin” positioned in parallel. Each sentence is grammatically phrased as a command, or steps in a ritual. Their construction suggests that each is a reflection of the other.

smelling the stars
-- Speaker (Line 22)

Importance: This line uses composite imagery, a form of sensory imagery which combines seemingly unlikely senses. In this context, one cannot literally “smell” the stars; and yet, the image it evokes is recognisable within the freedom of the night (It can also be read as a metonym, equating a small part as the larger whole). It creates a sense of something that’s both impossibly foreign and intimately familiar. The line also uses alliteration in the double Ss to create a lyrical quality...