These other literary devices equally evoke images that go to support the themes in the poem.

Repetition

• Lead
• But
• Right
• pack

Parallelism

• The Warthog is too ugly

The rhino too riotous

• A little bit of a Lion
• A little bit of a Lamb
• Tough like a tiger, compassionate like a doe, or DOVE?

Transparent like a river, mysterious like a lake

• A leader who knows how to follow
• Followers mindful of their right to lead.

Simile

• Tough like a tiger
• compassionate like a doe
• Transparent like a river
• mysterious like a lake
• And the pack trashes around
• Like a snake without a head

Alliteration

• Pack points
• Hybrid of habits

Personification

Most of the animal characters in the poem are personified as males. This is achieved through the use of the masculine pronouns he/him/his.

Like I’ve pointed out elsewhere in this analysis of “The Leader and the Led”, this could as well be the poet’s way of criticizing the dominance of the male gender on the African political scene.