The Talons of Assault is a poetic riddle intended to express pleasure with war, originating in The Portals of Strength. The rules of the form are applied by poets to produce individual poems which can be recited. The poem is a series of sexains. Each line has seven syllables. The sixth line of each sexain presents a different view of the subject of the first line. The rhyme scheme of the poem is AB11BB, where numbers indicate a refrain.