At Sunset by Alfred Kisubi full poem
Introduction and Background Context
The poem's title immediately establishes multiple layers of meaning. On the surface level, "At Sunset" refers to the time of day when the poem's events unfold. But sunset also carries symbolic weight - it represents endings, the close of an era, approaching darkness, and the decline of something that once thrived. For Iraq, this sunset marks the end of sovereignty, the fading of ancient Mesopotamian glory, and the descent into chaos and sectarian violence that would define the country for years to come.
Understanding the historical context is crucial for appreciating this poem. The Iraq War began in 2003 when a coalition led by the United States invaded Iraq, officially to find weapons of mass destruction and remove Saddam Hussein from power. The invasion was controversial from the start, and no such weapons were ever found. What followed was years of occupation, insurgency, sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims, and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Kisubi's poem captures this chaotic period with unflinching honesty.
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Detailed Stanza Analysis
Stanza One: Establish the Landscape of War
The opening stanza works like a camera panning across a city under siege. Kisubi begins with "At sun set, lit oil-filled trenches far afield" which immediately places us in a specific time and introduces one of the poem's central images - burning oil. These oil-filled trenches served a dual military purpose during the war: they created smokescreens to obscure visibility for enemy aircraft and made targeting more difficult. But the symbolism runs deeper. Iraq possesses some of the world's largest oil reserves, and oil was widely discussed as a motivating factor behind the invasion. The burning trenches thus represent Iraq's wealth literally going up in smoke.
The smoke "Create[s] a smokescreen over the city on the Tigris" - this is Baghdad, Iraq's capital and largest city, built along the Tigris River. By naming the Tigris specifically, Kisubi connects modern Baghdad to its ancient past. The Tigris, along with the Euphrates, defined Mesopotamia, the so-called cradle of civilization where writing, agriculture, and urban society first developed. This geographical specificity isn't just description - it's a reminder of what's being destroyed.
The smoke then takes on an almost supernatural quality as Kisubi traces its movement: "Rising up above the eight-lane flyover / Lingering high above Mesopotamia plain / Sweeping over grandiose war memorials, / Pervading mosques and walled-off presidential palaces / Gliding over the flat skyline of a few high rises." Notice the progression of verbs - rising, lingering, sweeping, pervading, gliding. The smoke becomes animate, an active presence that touches everything. This isn't passive description but active witnessing.
The locations the smoke touches are carefully chosen. The "eight-lane flyover" represents modern infrastructure and development. "Grandiose war memorials" remind us that Iraq has a long history of conflict, having fought an eight-year war with Iran in the 1980s and the Gulf War in 1991. "Mosques" represent the religious and spiritual life of Iraqis, while "walled-off presidential palaces" suggest the isolation of power and the regime that's being targeted. Finally, "a few high rises" indicates this isn't a city of skyscrapers but a low-rise urban landscape, making it more vulnerable to the kind of warfare being waged.
The contrast between ancient and modern is deliberate throughout this stanza. Mesopotamia plain meets eight-lane flyovers. Sacred mosques stand near presidential palaces. This juxtaposition emphasizes that war doesn't discriminate - it affects both the old and new, the sacred and secular, the monumental and everyday.
Stanza Two: The Machinery of War in Motion
The second stanza shifts dramatically from description to action. "As darkness falls, new air raids rock / The sprawling city of mud-brick houses" - the darkness is both literal nightfall and metaphorical darkness descending on Iraq. The word "new" before "air raids" suggests this is ongoing, repetitive bombing, not a single strike. These aren't the first raids and won't be the last.
The description of "mud-brick houses" is significant. While stanza one mentioned palaces and memorials, here we see where ordinary people actually live. Mud-brick construction is traditional in Iraq, affordable and suited to the climate, but it offers no protection against modern weapons. This detail humanizes the conflict and reminds us who really suffers.
"3rd infantry brigade advances" - this specific military designation grounds the poem in reality. The 3rd Infantry Division was indeed one of the main U.S. Army units involved in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. By naming them specifically, Kisubi documents rather than fictionalizes. This is reportage as much as poetry.
Then comes one of the poem's most powerful lines: "Fracturing the bedrock of a people in pain." This metaphor works on multiple levels. Literally, bombs fracture ground and bedrock. Figuratively, the bedrock represents the foundation of Iraqi society - its social structures, cultural identity, communal bonds, and sense of nationhood. The invasion doesn't just destroy buildings but breaks apart the very foundation of a civilization. The phrase "a people in pain" is important too - Kisubi acknowledges that Iraqis were already suffering under Saddam Hussein's dictatorship before the invasion added another layer of trauma.
The next lines contain some of the poem's most striking imagery: "Tight-tiger caws on the trigger of the grenade / Take command to go head and invade / bang break and ransack the place." The "Tight-tiger" metaphor personifies soldiers as predatory animals, coiled and ready to strike. The phrase "caws on the trigger" is unusual - cawing typically describes bird sounds, creating a dissonant, almost violent auditory image. The command to "invade / bang break and ransack" reduces military action to its brutal essentials. These aren't surgical strikes or liberation efforts - they're destruction, plain and simple.
The stanza concludes with the war's official justification: "for weapons of 'mass destruction'." Those quotation marks do heavy lifting. They signal Kisubi's skepticism about the invasion's stated purpose. The weapons of mass destruction that supposedly justified the war were never found, making the quotation marks a bitter comment on how language can be manipulated to justify violence. The irony is sharp - in searching for weapons of mass destruction, the invaders became the agents of mass destruction themselves.
Stanza Three: Chaos, Desperation, and Sectarian Division
The third stanza plunges us into ground-level chaos. "Though smoke bites their eyes" - notice the aggressive verb "bites." Smoke doesn't just obscure vision or cause irritation; it attacks. The personification continues from stanza one but now the smoke directly harms people rather than just hovering over the city.
"Thousands of poor people take to the streets / Looking for loadable loot and eatable treats" - this couplet is devastating in its matter-of-fact description of desperation. When social order collapses, survival becomes paramount. The alliteration of "loadable loot and eatable treats" creates an almost sing-song quality that contrasts disturbingly with the desperate situation being described. People aren't protesting or fighting here - they're scavenging for basic necessities. The choice of "treats" rather than "food" is interesting, suggesting that even small pleasures or anything edible becomes valuable in wartime scarcity.
"Air raid sirens down their voices" - even in desperation, people are silenced by the machinery of war. The sirens literally overpower human voices, just as the larger conflict overwhelms individual Iraqi experiences and stories. Throughout the war, Iraqi voices were often marginalized in international discourse, with discussion focusing instead on Western military strategy, political justifications, and coalition casualties.
Then Kisubi introduces the sectarian dimension that would come to define the Iraq War's aftermath: "As sun sets on their freedom and fame / Shite militias tote their AK-47 assault riffles / Sunni insurgents shoot their IED's, fomenting scuffles." The spelling "Shite" appears to be a variant of Shia (one of Islam's two main branches), while Sunni represents the other. These religious divisions existed long before 2003, but the power vacuum created by the invasion intensified them catastrophically.
The weapons mentioned are specific and significant. AK-47 assault rifles, designed in the Soviet Union, were ubiquitous in Iraq and throughout the Middle East - reliable, easy to maintain, and widely available. IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) became the signature weapon of the Iraqi insurgency, responsible for many coalition casualties. These homemade bombs could be hidden in debris, trash, dead animals, or roadside objects, making every journey dangerous.
The word "fomenting" is carefully chosen. It means to instigate or stir up, suggesting these aren't spontaneous conflicts but deliberately provoked violence. The understated "scuffles" contrasts ironically with the deadly reality of sectarian warfare. These weren't minor disagreements but brutal killings that would eventually approach civil war levels.
The repetition of "As sun sets on their freedom and fame" is crucial. In stanza one, this might have referred to Iraq's sovereignty or its historical glory. Here, as Iraqis turn weapons on each other, it suggests that whatever freedom existed before is disappearing, and Iraq's fame as the cradle of civilization is being eclipsed by images of violence and chaos.
Stanza Four: Protest, Irony, and Bitter Liberation
The final stanza begins with "After prayers, Sunnis protest" - grounding the action in religious practice reminds us that for many Iraqis, faith remains central even amid chaos. The specification of "Sunnis" rather than just "Iraqis" or "people" highlights how the war intensified sectarian identities. Under Saddam Hussein, a Sunni minority held power over the Shia majority. The invasion upended this dynamic, leading to Sunni grievances that fueled insurgency.
These protesters are "Joining millions in cities across the globe" - this is a reference to the massive worldwide protests against the Iraq War. In February 2003, before the invasion even began, millions of people demonstrated in cities worldwide, making it possibly the largest protest event in human history. Kisubi connects Iraqi Sunnis to this global movement, showing that opposition to the war transcended borders and united diverse groups.
They protest "To manifest newly found freedom and fame / Burning fags and effigies of those who [invade]." The phrase "newly found freedom" drips with irony. This freedom to protest comes at the cost of bombs, occupation, and social disintegration. Burning flags (presumably American and British) and effigies (likely of political leaders like Bush and Blair) are traditional forms of protest, but they also recall the burning oil trenches from stanza one - burning seems to be the motif that connects all levels of the poem.
"As sun sets on foreign forces and mayhem / Nearby checkpoint smolder in flames" - the sunset now explicitly includes "foreign forces," suggesting their eventual withdrawal, but "mayhem" remains. The burning checkpoints represent attacks on the occupation's infrastructure and the constant insecurity that defined daily life in Iraq. Checkpoints were necessary for security but also sites of humiliation, delay, and frequent violence.
"Smoke rises up above and beyond / Their newly exported freedom and fame" - the poem comes full circle, returning to the smoke imagery from stanza one. But now it's explicitly connected to "exported freedom," one of the poem's most cutting phrases. The idea that democracy and freedom could be "exported" through military invasion was a key part of the war's justification. The Bush administration and its allies argued they were liberating Iraqis and bringing them freedom and democracy.
Kisubi's repetition of "freedom and fame" throughout the final stanzas becomes increasingly hollow. By the end, when we see smoke rising above this "exported freedom," we understand that what's been delivered isn't liberation but destruction. The freedom to protest comes alongside the freedom to starve, to die in sectarian violence, to live under foreign occupation, and to watch your country burn. This is the bitter reality behind the rhetoric of liberation.
Major Themes in the poem
Theme 1: The Destruction of Civilization and Heritage
One of the poem's most poignant themes is the destruction of not just a country but a civilization. Kisubi's repeated references to Mesopotamia aren't accidental. This region gave humanity some of its most important innovations - writing (cuneiform), law (Hammurabi's Code), mathematics, astronomy, agriculture, and urban civilization itself. Ancient cities like Babylon, Ur, and Nineveh were located in what is now Iraq.
By setting modern warfare against this ancient backdrop, Kisubi emphasizes the tragedy. The "bedrock" being fractured isn't just contemporary Iraq but thousands of years of human achievement. The irony is sharp - Western nations that trace their own cultural heritage partly to Mesopotamian innovations are now bombing that heritage's homeland. During the Iraq War, museums were looted, archaeological sites were damaged, and countless artifacts were destroyed or stolen, representing an incalculable cultural loss for all humanity.
Theme 2: The Hypocrisy of "Liberation"
The poem relentlessly questions the concept of violent liberation. The repeated phrase "exported freedom and fame" becomes the poem's thesis statement. Can freedom truly be exported? Can it be delivered through bombs and occupation? The evidence Kisubi presents suggests otherwise.
The quotation marks around "mass destruction" signal the first crack in the official narrative. If the justification for war was false, what does that make the war itself? The "newly found freedom" that involves scavenging for food, sectarian violence, and burning checkpoints looks nothing like actual freedom. This theme connects to historical patterns of colonialism, where European powers claimed to bring civilization and progress while actually pursuing economic and strategic interests.
The word "exported" is particularly biting. It suggests freedom as a commodity, something manufactured in the West and delivered to the Middle East. But freedom isn't a product - it emerges from within societies through struggle, negotiation, and social development. Imposed freedom is a contradiction in terms, more likely to generate resistance than gratitude.
Theme 3: Sectarian Division and Social Fracture
Kisubi doesn't shy away from showing how the invasion intensified Iraq's sectarian divisions. The mention of both Shia militias and Sunni insurgents, armed and in conflict, illustrates how the power vacuum created by regime change allowed these tensions to explode into violence.
Under Saddam Hussein's brutal dictatorship, sectarian identities were somewhat suppressed through authoritarian control. The regime was nominally secular, though dominated by Sunni Arabs. The U.S. invasion dismantled the entire state apparatus, including the army and Ba'ath party, leaving hundreds of thousands of armed, unemployed men with grievances. The subsequent empowerment of the Shia majority, Iran's increased influence, and Sunni marginalization created conditions for civil conflict.
The poem shows this isn't abstract political science but lived reality. While foreign forces and Iraqis fight each other, Iraqis also fight each other. The tragedy is compounded - external invasion creates conditions for internal conflict, multiplying suffering.
Theme 4: The Experience of Ordinary People in War
Throughout the poem, Kisubi keeps returning to regular people - those living in mud-brick houses, those searching for food, those whose voices are drowned out by air raid sirens. These aren't soldiers or politicians but civilians caught in circumstances beyond their control.
The "thousands of poor people" in stanza three represent the vast majority who don't make war but suffer its consequences. They weren't consulted about the invasion, didn't choose the resulting chaos, and had no say in the sectarian violence that erupted. Yet they bear the primary costs - their homes destroyed, their neighborhoods turned into battlegrounds, their daily survival a constant struggle.
This focus on ordinary people serves an important rhetorical purpose. It's easy to abstract war into geopolitical strategy, military tactics, or political debate. Kisubi refuses that abstraction, insisting we see the human faces and human costs. This technique has a long history in anti-war literature, from Wilfred Owen's WWI poetry to contemporary accounts of modern conflicts.
Theme 5: Oil, Economics, and Hidden Motivations
While never stated explicitly as a theme, oil hovers over the entire poem. The "oil-filled trenches" of the opening line remind us that Iraq has the world's fifth-largest proven oil reserves. Many critics of the Iraq War argued that oil was a primary motivation, despite official justifications about weapons of mass destruction and spreading democracy.
The burning oil is thus symbolic on multiple levels. It represents Iraq's wealth literally burning away, the environmental destruction of war, the waste of resources that could have benefited Iraqis, and the hidden economic motivations behind humanitarian rhetoric. The fact that the poem begins with this image suggests its foundational importance to understanding the conflict.
Literary Techniques and Stylistic Analysis
Imagery and Symbolism
Kisubi's use of imagery is one of the poem's greatest strengths. The smoke that pervades the first stanza and returns in the last creates a unifying thread. Smoke obscures, confuses, and harms - much like war itself. It's both literal (from burning oil, explosions, and fires) and metaphorical (the confusion and obscured truth surrounding the war's justifications and conduct).
The sunset imagery works similarly, operating on literal and symbolic levels simultaneously. As evening falls, so does darkness on Iraq's future. The repetition of "as sun sets" creates a refrain that structures the poem while reinforcing its theme of endings and decline.
Fire and burning appear throughout - burning oil trenches, air raids that "rock" the city, checkpoints smoldering in flames, burning flags and effigies. Fire destroys but also transforms, and it spreads uncontrollably - apt metaphors for how war's violence exceeds its initiators' control.
Tone and Voice
The poem's tone is documentary yet critical, observational yet engaged. Kisubi maintains enough distance to seem like a witness rather than a participant, lending credibility to his account. He doesn't claim to speak for Iraqis but rather presents what he observes.
However, the tone isn't neutral. The sarcastic quotation marks, the bitter repetition of "freedom and fame," and the choice of details all reveal a critical stance. The voice is that of someone who sees through official rhetoric to the messy, tragic reality beneath. There's anger here, but it's controlled, channeled into precise description rather than explicit polemic.
The progression of tone across stanzas is also noteworthy. Stanza one is more descriptive and atmospheric. Stanza two introduces violence and critique. Stanza three shows desperation and chaos. Stanza four culminates in irony and bitter reflection. This progression mirrors both a day's passage and the war's escalation from invasion to occupation to insurgency.
Sound and Rhythm
Kisubi uses alliteration strategically throughout the poem. "Loadable loot and eatable treats" creates a rhythm that contrasts with its desperate content. "Tight-tiger" combines assonance and alliteration for a hissing, predatory effect.
The rhythm isn't strictly metrical but has a flowing, almost prose-like quality that accommodates the documentary details (3rd infantry brigade, AK-47s, IEDs) while still creating poetic effects. The line breaks often create emphasis or pause at significant moments. For example, breaking "go head and invade" into separate lines emphasizes the command structure and deliberateness of military action.
The repetition of phrases ("freedom and fame," "as sun sets") creates a incantatory effect, burning these ironies into the reader's mind through repetition.
Structure and Form
The poem's four-stanza structure mirrors a kind of progression - from setting to action to chaos to aftermath. Each stanza builds on the previous while introducing new elements. The lack of strict rhyme scheme or meter gives the poem flexibility to incorporate specific details and maintain a more journalistic, observational tone.
The varying stanza lengths (seven, eight, seven, and eight lines) create some symmetry without being rigid. This balance between structure and flexibility mirrors the poem's content - there's order in the presentation even as it describes disorder and chaos.
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Historical and Political Context of the poem.
Understanding the Iraq War's progression helps illuminate the poem's references. The 2003 invasion was initially swift, with Baghdad falling quickly. However, the occupation phase proved far more difficult. The disbanding of the Iraqi army, de-Ba'athification policies, and the emergence of various insurgent and militia groups created a complex, multi-sided conflict.
The sectarian violence Kisubi references peaked around 2006-2007, with massive car bombings, ethnic cleansing in mixed neighborhoods, and retaliatory killings. The U.S. military's "surge" strategy in 2007 somewhat reduced violence levels, but at tremendous cost. By the time U.S. forces fully withdrew in 2011, estimates of Iraqi deaths ranged from hundreds of thousands to over a million, with millions more displaced.
The poem's reference to global protests also connects to a broader context. The Iraq War was controversial from the start, with many nations refusing to participate and massive public opposition even in countries whose governments joined the coalition. This made it different from earlier wars with broader international consensus.
Comparative Analysis: Similar Anti-War Poetry
Kisubi's work fits into a long tradition of anti-war poetry. Wilfred Owen's WWI poems like "Dulce et Decorum Est" similarly exposed the gap between patriotic rhetoric and war's brutal reality. Owen's famous line "The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori" (It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country) parallels Kisubi's critique of "exported freedom."
W.H. Auden's "September 1, 1939" confronts the beginning of WWII with similar disillusionment about political motivations and the suffering of ordinary people. Like Kisubi, Auden combines specific historical details with universal human concerns.
More contemporary poets like Brian Turner, an American Iraq War veteran, have also written about the conflict's impact. Turner's "Here, Bullet" and other poems from his collection share Kisubi's focus on sensory detail and the war's grinding daily reality, though from an American soldier's perspective.
What distinguishes Kisubi's poem is its sustained irony and its focus on Iraqi experience rather than Western participants. While much war poetry has been written by soldiers or Western observers, Kisubi centers Iraqi suffering and explicitly questions the intervention's justifications.
Detailed Imagery in the poem
Visual Imagery
Smoke and Fire Imagery
The most dominant visual image throughout the poem is smoke. Kisubi traces its movement in almost cinematic detail:
- "lit oil-filled trenches far afield" - we see flames lighting up the distance
- "Create a smokescreen over the city" - thick, obscuring smoke blankets everything
- "Rising up above the eight-lane flyover" - smoke climbing vertically
- "Lingering high above Mesopotamia plain" - smoke hanging in the air
- "Sweeping over grandiose war memorials" - smoke moving horizontally across landmarks
- "Pervading mosques and walled-off presidential palaces" - smoke entering sacred and political spaces
- "Gliding over the flat skyline" - smoke passing over the urban landscape
This progression creates a sense of smoke as an unstoppable force that touches everything. The verbs (rising, lingering, sweeping, pervading, gliding) give smoke agency and movement, making it almost a character in the poem.
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Architectural and Geographical Imagery
Kisubi paints a detailed picture of Baghdad's physical landscape:
- "eight-lane flyover" - modern infrastructure, wide roads suggesting development
- "mud-brick houses" - traditional architecture, humble dwellings of ordinary people
- "grandiose war memorials" - imposing monuments to past conflicts
- "mosques" - distinctive religious architecture with domes and minarets
- "walled-off presidential palaces" - fortified, isolated centers of power
- "flat skyline of a few high rises" - low-rise urban sprawl, not a dramatic skyline
- "Mesopotamia plain" - flat, ancient landscape
The contrast between "grandiose war memorials" and "mud-brick houses" visually represents the gap between official power and ordinary life. The "walled-off presidential palaces" create an image of isolation and fortification that contrasts with the exposed, vulnerable "sprawling city of mud-brick houses."
Color Imagery
Though not explicitly stated, the poem evokes specific colors:
- The orange and black of burning oil trenches at sunset
- The grey and black of smoke covering the city
- The darkness that "falls" in stanza two
- The flames of smoldering checkpoints
- Burning flags and effigies
The overall color palette is dark, smoky, and fire-lit, creating an apocalyptic atmosphere.
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Auditory Imagery
Sounds of War
- "new air raids rock" - the verb "rock" suggests explosive, earth-shaking sounds
- "Tight-tiger caws on the trigger" - the unusual "caws" creates a harsh, aggressive sound
- "bang break and ransack" - the hard consonants create percussive, violent sounds
- "Air raid sirens down their voices" - the overwhelming wail of sirens
- The implied sound of AK-47s and IEDs being fired
The progression from the quieter opening stanza to the loud chaos of stanzas two and three mirrors the escalation of violence. The air raid sirens "drowning" voices creates a powerful image of how war silences human communication and expression.
Tactile Imagery
Physical Sensations
- "smoke bites their eyes" - sharp, painful sensation
- The heat implied by burning oil trenches, flames, and smoldering checkpoints
- The physical impact of bombs that "rock" the city
- The implied weight and texture of weapons - AK-47s being "toted," triggers being pulled
The phrase "smoke bites their eyes" is particularly effective tactile imagery. It's not just that smoke irritates or stings - it "bites," suggesting an aggressive, predatory action that causes pain.
Kinesthetic Imagery (Movement)
The poem is full of movement:
- Smoke rising, lingering, sweeping, pervading, gliding
- Infantry brigade "advances"
- People "take to the streets"
- Militias "tote" their rifles
- Insurgents "shoot" their IEDs
- Protesters "burning" flags and effigies
- Smoke "rises up above and beyond"
This constant motion creates a sense of chaos and instability. Nothing is static or peaceful - everything and everyone is in motion, driven by the war's momentum.
Literary Devices in the poem- At Sunset.
1. Personification
Smoke as a Living Entity
The smoke doesn't just exist - it acts with intention:
- "Create a smokescreen" - active creation
- "Rising up" - deliberate upward movement
- "Lingering" - choosing to stay
- "Sweeping over" - deliberate motion across space
- "Pervading" - penetrating and filling
- "Gliding over" - smooth, almost graceful movement
- "smoke bites their eyes" - aggressive attack
This extended personification turns smoke into a character that witnesses and participates in the destruction. It becomes a metaphor for war itself - pervasive, harmful, obscuring truth.
Other Personification Examples
- "darkness falls" - darkness actively descends
- "air raids rock" - raids shake like an earthquake
- "Air raid sirens down their voices" - sirens actively silence people
2. Metaphor
"Fracturing the bedrock of a people in pain"
This is the poem's most powerful metaphor. On multiple levels:
- Literal level: bombs fracture actual bedrock and ground
- Social level: the social structure and cohesion of Iraqi society breaks apart
- Cultural level: the foundation of Iraqi cultural identity cracks
- Historical level: the ancient Mesopotamian heritage is damaged
- Psychological level: the collective psyche of Iraqis is traumatized
The word "bedrock" suggests something fundamental, deep, and supposedly permanent - making its fracturing even more devastating.
"Tight-tiger caws on the trigger"
Soldiers/invaders are metaphorically compared to tigers - predatory, dangerous, coiled to strike. This dehumanizes them while emphasizing their lethal nature.
"As sun sets on their freedom and fame"
Freedom and fame are metaphorically connected to daylight, with their loss represented by sunset and approaching darkness. This works because:
- Sunset = ending, decline, approaching darkness
- Freedom/fame = light, visibility, glory
- The combination suggests these positive qualities are disappearing
3. Symbolism
Oil
The burning oil symbolizes:
- Iraq's natural wealth being destroyed
- The economic motivations behind the invasion
- Waste and destruction of resources
- The environmental cost of war
- The irony that Iraq's greatest asset becomes a weapon used against its own people
Smoke
Smoke symbolizes:
- The fog of war - confusion and obscured truth
- Pervasive destruction that touches everything
- The lingering effects of violence
- Pollution and contamination, both physical and moral
- The gap between reality and what can be seen/understood
Sunset
Sunset symbolizes:
- The end of an era (Iraqi sovereignty, pre-war life)
- Approaching darkness (chaos, violence, unknown future)
- The decline of civilization
- The fading of Iraq's historical glory
- The loss of hope
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia symbolizes:
- Ancient civilization and human achievement
- Cultural heritage and history
- The irony of destroying the "cradle of civilization"
- What connects past to present
- What's being lost beyond just contemporary Iraq
4. Irony
Verbal Irony
- "weapons of 'mass destruction'" - the quotation marks signal the speaker doesn't believe they existed, making the entire justification for war ironic
- "newly found freedom and fame" - repeated multiple times with increasing bitterness as we see what this "freedom" actually looks like
- "exported freedom" - the idea that freedom can be delivered like a commodity through military force is deeply ironic
Situational Irony
- Searching for weapons of mass destruction while using weapons of mass destruction
- Claiming to bring freedom while occupying a country
- Liberating people who then have to scavenge for food
- Bringing democracy while silencing voices with air raid sirens
- Protecting civilization in the birthplace of civilization by destroying it
Dramatic Irony
The reader knows what the characters in the poem might not fully grasp yet - that the weapons of mass destruction don't exist, that the freedom being exported is hollow, that the intervention will lead to years of chaos rather than quick liberation.
5. Alliteration
"Tight-tiger"
The repeated 't' sound creates a tense, aggressive effect. The hard consonant suggests something wound up, ready to spring.
"loadable loot and eatable treats"
The 'l' sounds in "loadable loot" and 't' sounds in "eatable treats" create a rhythm that's almost playful, which contrasts disturbingly with the desperate situation being described. This dissonance makes the line more powerful.
"bang break and ransack"
The repeated hard consonants (b, k sounds) create percussive, violent effects that mirror the actions being described.
6. Repetition
"As sun sets on their freedom and fame"
This phrase appears multiple times throughout stanzas 3 and 4. Each repetition:
- Creates a refrain that structures the poem
- Becomes increasingly ironic as we see more of what this "freedom" entails
- Emphasizes the central theme of false liberation
- Links different scenes and moments through recurring language
"Freedom and fame"
These two words appear together repeatedly, always in the context of irony. By the end, they're almost meaningless - empty words that have been drained of positive meaning by the reality they're supposed to describe.
"Smoke rises"
The poem begins with smoke and ends with "Smoke rises up above and beyond," creating circular structure while showing smoke as a constant presence throughout.
7. Juxtaposition
Sacred vs. Secular
"Pervading mosques and walled-off presidential palaces" - places of worship are placed alongside centers of political power, showing how war affects both spiritual and temporal realms.
Ancient vs. Modern
"Mesopotamia plain" is juxtaposed with "eight-lane flyover" - the ancient cradle of civilization meets contemporary infrastructure.
Rich vs. Poor
"Presidential palaces" contrast with "mud-brick houses" and "thousands of poor people" - showing the gap between those who make war and those who suffer from it.
Official Justification vs. Reality
"Weapons of mass destruction" (the justification) is juxtaposed with "bang break and ransack" (the reality) - noble rhetoric versus brutal action.
8. Enjambment
Kisubi uses enjambment (continuing sentences across line breaks) extensively:
"lit oil-filled trenches far afield
Create a smokescreen over the city on the Tigris"
"new air raids rock
The sprawling city of mud-brick houses"
"Take command to go head and invade
bang break and ransack the place"
This technique creates forward momentum and mirrors the way war events cascade into each other. It also allows Kisubi to place emphasis on certain words by isolating them at the beginning or end of lines.
9. Assonance
Internal vowel sounds create musical effects:
- "Lingering high" - the 'i' sound
- "Sweeping over" - the long 'e' sounds
- "Thousands of poor" - the 'ou' sound
- "Shite militias tote" - the long 'i' and 'o' sounds
These vowel repetitions create a sense of flow and connection between words, even as the content describes disconnection and chaos.
10. Consonance
Repeated consonant sounds within or at the end of words:
- "trigger of the grenade" - the 'g' and 'r' sounds
- "bang break and ransack" - the 'k' sound
- "smolder in flames" - the 'm' sound
These create cohesion and emphasis, drawing attention to key phrases.
11. Imagery Clusters
Fire/Burning Cluster:
- lit oil-filled trenches
- air raids
- checkpoints smolder in flames
- burning flags and effigies
- smoke (product of burning)
Violence/Weapons Cluster:
- air raids
- 3rd infantry brigade
- grenade
- invade, bang, break, ransack
- AK-47 assault rifles
- IEDs
- trigger
Movement/Spreading Cluster:
- rising, lingering, sweeping, pervading, gliding
- advances
- take to the streets
- rises up above and beyond
These clusters work together to create a comprehensive sensory experience of war - we see it, hear it, feel it, and understand its spread and impact.
12. Synecdoche
"Tight-tiger caws on the trigger"
The "trigger" represents the entire weapon and military action - a part standing for the whole.
"Mud-brick houses"
This architectural detail represents all of ordinary Iraqi domestic life and the vulnerability of civilians.
"checkpoints"
These represent the entire apparatus of occupation - the security infrastructure, foreign control, daily humiliations, and restrictions on movement.
13. Metonymy
"The city on the Tigris"
The Tigris River is closely associated with Baghdad, so naming the river evokes the city.
"Mesopotamia plain"
This geographical term evokes all of ancient civilization, history, and cultural heritage.
"Presidential palaces"
These buildings represent political power, the regime, and authoritarian control.
14. Paradox
"exported freedom"
This is paradoxical because freedom by definition must be chosen and self-determined. Freedom that's imposed or exported isn't really freedom at all. The phrase contains its own contradiction.
"newly found freedom" (amid chaos and violence)
The freedom exists alongside destruction, occupation, and suffering - contradicting what freedom should mean.
15. Oxymoron
"grandiose war memorials"
There's something oxymoronic about memorials to war being "grandiose" - celebrating and monumentalizing something that causes death and destruction.
16. Hyperbole
"Thousands of poor people take to the streets"
While possibly literal, "thousands" emphasizes the scale of desperation and chaos.
"millions in cities across the globe"
This emphasizes the unprecedented scale of anti-war protests worldwide.
17. Understatement
"fomenting scuffles"
The word "scuffles" drastically understates the reality of sectarian violence that killed thousands. This understated language creates ironic effect - the reality is far worse than the mild word suggests.
18. Allusion
Mesopotamia
This alludes to the entire history of civilization - Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian cultures that developed writing, law, mathematics, and urban society. The allusion adds weight to the destruction by reminding us of the historical significance of this place.
The Tigris
One of the two great rivers (with the Euphrates) that defined ancient Mesopotamia and continues to sustain Iraq. Biblical and historical allusions connect to this river.
Weapons of mass destruction
This phrase alludes to the specific political discourse and justification used for the 2003 invasion, connecting the poem to real historical events and debates.
How These Devices Work Together
The power of Kisubi's poem comes from how these devices reinforce each other:
Smoke imagery + personification + symbolism work together to create a pervasive presence that represents war itself
Irony + repetition of "freedom and fame" hammer home the central critique
Specific details (3rd infantry brigade, AK-47s) + metaphor + allusion ground the poem in historical reality while giving it universal significance
Visual imagery + auditory imagery + tactile imagery create a complete sensory experience that makes the war feel immediate and real
Juxtaposition + paradox highlight contradictions between rhetoric and reality
Alliteration + assonance + consonance create musical effects that make the poem memorable even as it describes chaos
Enjambment + varied line lengths create rhythm that mirrors the cascading, uncontrollable nature of war
The literary devices aren't decorative but functional - they help Kisubi achieve his purpose of exposing the gap between the official narrative of liberation and the reality of destruction, while honoring the human cost of war.
For exam purposes, you should be able to identify these devices, quote specific examples, and explain how they contribute to the poem's themes and overall impact. The strongest analysis will show how multiple devices work together rather than just listing them separately.
Conclusion
"At Sunset" remains relevant beyond its specific historical moment because it addresses questions that recur throughout history: When is military intervention justified? Can freedom be imposed from outside? Who pays the real costs of geopolitical conflicts? How do high-minded justifications relate to on-the-ground realities?
The poem's power lies in its specificity - the Tigris, the 3rd infantry brigade, AK-47s - combined with universal themes of suffering, hypocrisy, and the human costs of war. By documenting one war carefully, Kisubi illuminates patterns visible in many conflicts.
For students analyzing this poem, the key is to balance close reading of literary techniques with awareness of historical context. Understand how Kisubi's imagery works, but also know what the smoke and burning represent. Appreciate the irony of "exported freedom," but also understand why that phrase cuts so deeply in this specific context.
The poem's final image - smoke rising above "newly exported freedom and fame" - leaves us with ambiguity. The smoke rises "above and beyond," suggesting it will outlast the immediate conflict, spreading and lingering like war's consequences always do. The freedom and fame remain, but they're hollow, bitter concepts now, forever marked by the quotation marks Kisubi places around them earlier in the poem.
In the end, "At Sunset" is both elegy and indictment - mourning what Iraq has lost while holding accountable those who claimed to be liberators. It's a poem that refuses to look away from difficult truths, making it uncomfortable but essential reading for anyone seeking to understand modern warfare's human dimensions.
FreshNote wish you well in your exam ♥️
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