In the courtroom of honor, the judge pounded his gavel
to show that all's equal and that the courts are on the level
and that the strings in the books ain't pulled and persuaded
and that even the nobles get properly handled
once that the cops have chased after and caught 'em
and that ladder of law has no top and no bottom
stared at the person who killed for no reason
who just happened to be feelin' that way without warnin'
and he spoke through his cloak, most deep and distinguished
and handed out strongly, for penalty and repentance
william zanzinger with a six-month sentence.

the underlined words in this excerpt from dylan's "the lonesome death of hattie carroll" are an example of hyperbole to exaggerate the judge's orders synecdoche to represent the nation's entire legal system sarcasm to emphasize the absurdity of zanzinger's sentence understatement to suggest that the situation was not as bad as it seemed