What does assail mean?

What does the machinery in the hospital represent to the army major in the story? support your answer with textual evidence.

Read the excerpt from the odyssey then his chores being all dispatched she caught another brace of man to make his breakfast and whisk away his great door slab to let his sheep go through but he behind reset the stones as one would cap a quiver what two things are being compared in this epic simile

The opening stanza portray a frightened narrator fleeing though darkness. how does it rhythm reflect and enhance its meaning