Summary
This survey of modern Arabic poetry is based on lectures delivered at different times at the University of Oxford. It is not a full history but a critical introduction to the study of the subject. In it I have not included every modern Arabic poet of note. To do so would require a book several times the size of this volume. Given the limitations of space, then, instead of providing an indiscriminate list of names, I have chosen to deal, in a relatively discursive manner, with the works of a few selected poets, who seem to me either to have intrinsic importance or to represent new departures to an extent that justifies separate treatment. Since the criteria of such a choice are, from the very nature of things, indissolubly bound up with personal judgment or subjective experience, I am aware that there must be a few names who, in the opinion of some, should have been included. This, however, is unavoidable. But, I repeat, if I have not discussed the work of a poet in this book it is no indication that I consider his or her work to be devoid of literary merit. The reader will soon realize that for lack of space I have not been able to discuss all the poets whom I regarded as sufficiently interesting to merit inclusion in my Anthology of Modern Arabic Verse (Oxford, 1970). And there are many more poets of all categories whose work I would wish to include in my Anthology if I was compiling it now.
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- A Critical Introduction to Modern Arabic Poetry , pp. ix - xiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1976