Mahmoud

**Mahmoud Saad** //Shadows of War// Poetry Analysis—TPCASTT

P ||  PARAPHRASE  || There are five sentences in my poem, and I think the poem is trying to say: I am running away from the bad thoughts. The prisoners of Guantanamo are living a sad life among trash. As I walk through a beautiful autumn day. A dog barks, bringing with it the echoes of war and where I really am. I see student’s poetry still on the walls, before they had to grieve over the dead. || C  ||  CONNOTATION  || This poem has many very clear word choices. There is alliteration when the author uses a reference to the prisons of Guantanamo Bay where prisoners were allegedly tortured. There is also a very strong sense of imagery when he writes about the poems on the classroom walls, and how the students names are still written on the blackboard, This is a nice play on words also on how it refers to times of peace before the war. I also find the symbolism through the autumn to be ironic because the speaker is drawn away to a time of happiness and what I would think to be a very fond memory as he is experiencing or remembering it in the most hostile of situations. || A  ||  ATTITUDE  || I find the overall attitude of this poem to be of mourning and depression which is caused by the death of a fellow soldier, or perhaps a loved one. I feel as if the speaker feels that he is wrongfully put in war or as though he does not belong. Maybe he was drafted and it wasn’t his choice to be there in the first place anyways. || Shadows of War I walk in the gardens, on the run from the news. The orange waste-sacks, bellied with swept leaves, crouch between the limes all along the bare avenue - prisoners of Guantanamo. I walk in the orchards, abandoned to autumn. A dog leaps playful out of its owner's control, runs with the leash trailing among the poop-coils in the dirt - barking an echo of Abu Ghraib. I walk in the break-time, <span style="line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">see poems on a classroom wall, <span style="line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Owen, Sassoon, Sorley, <span style="line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">the texts of this year's syllabus: <span style="line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">words wailing like shells, <span style="line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">beyond the limits of our hearing - <span style="line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">mourning the corpses of Fallujah. <span style="line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">November 2004 <span style="font-size: 18pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
 * T ||  TITLE  || <span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Based on the title, I believe the poem will be about the after effects of the war. I think this because the word <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">“ <span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Shadows <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">” <span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> makes it seem as if it will be about what the war caused in essence of destruction and other after effects usually associated with war.  ||
 * S ||  SHIFTS  || This is true in my poem as well because the poet begins by trying to escape the present through a pleasant memory. However, the poem ends with him realizing what the truth. I feel there is some sense of irony on how he speaks of the innocent schoolchildren living in a war torn country, but other than that I can’t find any. ||
 * T ||  TITLE  || I still think that it is describing the after effects of a war, except I want to add that I think it also has to do with events going on during the war and how some things are masked. Because shadows again makes it seem as if something is hidden and we can’t see the full truth on some matters. ||
 * T ||  THEME  || The poem addresses the subjects of how the author feels about wrongful death. He thinks it is pointless and a huge waste, which leads to the other theme of anti-war. I think he hates war because of the pain it brings and the pointless death it brings. ||

<span style="font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">**I, Mahmoud Saad, adhere to the Honor Code of Green Hope High School**