What are some examples of literary devices in the poem "Jacklight," by Lousie Erddrich, and how do they help convey the poem's message?

In her poem "Jacklight," Louise Erdrich uses a number of
different literary devices to help contribute to the poem's meanings and effectiveness,
including the following:

• an
  epigraph, as in the opening quotation from R. W. Dunning,
  which helps explain the poem's title.


• frequent use of
  anaphora, or repetition of a word or phrase at the
  beginnings of successive lines, as in the first four lines of the
  poem:

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We have come to the edge of the
woods,

out of the brown grass where we
slept, unseen,

out of knotted twigs,
out of leaves creaked shut,

out of
hiding. (italics added)

Such
phrasing helps give the poem a highly rhythmic quality and thus contributes to its
memorability.

• assonance,
  or similar vowel sounds, as in the repeated "ou" sound in line 2 and the repeated "ee"
  sound in the same
  line.


• alliteration, or
  repetition of consonant sounds, as in the emphasis on "s" sounds in line 2.  Both
  assonance and alliteration
  contribute to the music of the poem and thus to its
  memorability.


• repetition,
  not only in the form of anaphora but even within lines, as in line
  3.


• metrical emphasis on initial
  words, as in the repeated "out" of lines 2-4. In regular iambic meter,
  the second syllable would be stressed (as in "rebel"; here
  the first syllable is stressed (as in
  "rebel").


• imagery
  of nature, as in all the lines quoted above, which implies the speaker's
  appreciation of beauty and which appeals to same sense in the
  reader.


• metaphor, in which a
  comparison is implied rather than openly stated by use of the words "like" or "as" (as
  in a simile).  A metaphor appears in line 6 when the speaker mentions "a fist of light"
  -- a phrase that implies the speaker's own inventiveness and sensitivity to
  language.


• lists of emphatic
  verbs, as in lines 6-7, which describe how
  light

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. . .
pointed,

searched out, divided
us.

This technique again adds
to the emphatic rhythm of the poem and stress key
words.

• similes, in
  which the speaker makes comparisons by using the words "like" or "as." A simile occurs,
  for instance, in line 8 when the speaker mentions "beams like direct blows." Here again
  the comparison implies the speaker's perceptiveness, sensitivity, and
  inventiveness.


• alternation of long and
  short sentences, as in lines 8-9, so that the rhythm of the poem does not
  become monotonous or predictable.


• paradoxes
  or oymorons, in which apparent opposites are combined, as in the
  reference in line 11 to a "night sun." These devices help sustain interest in the poem
  by surprising the reader and encouraging the reader to think in unconventional ways. 
  They also imply that the speaker is capable of such
  thought.


• onomatopoeia, in
  which a word sounds like the thing or action it describes, as in the use of "cracked" in
  line 20.


• ambiguity, or
  phrasing that seems unclear, suggestive, or provocative, as in line 18.  Ambiguity
  contributes to the mysteriousness of texts and encourages readers to try to decipher the
  intended meaning, thus making poems more
  intriguing.


• irony, or some
  kind of unepected disparity between two things, as in the shift of tone from peaceful in
  stanza one to violent and threatening in stanza
  four.