In the first line, Hayden mentions Selma. This is a reference to the 1965 civil rights march from Selma, Alabama, in which nonviolent protestors were attacked by police.

Today as the news from Selma and Saigon
poisons the air like fallout,
I come again to see
the serene great picture that I love.

–“Monet’s ‘Waterlilies,’”
Robert Hayden

What type of figurative language is the use of the word Selma here?

How does this example of figurative language affect the last line of the stanza?