On the other hand, al-Macarrl’s mannerism and his use of literary tradition
for “continuity and opposition,”^44 attracts al-Baymtl, too. Al-Macarrl’s blaming
of the world, as manifested in the topos of crafty or treacherous people, transfers
into al-Baymtl’s poetic re-creations. Nevertheless, the drive undergoes revision
to fit into al-Baymtl’s focused criticism. The yearning for death remains as the
catalyst to release the self from its many imprisonments. “Let me be free,
father, from my cage / for my prisons increase in number / and my sufferings
grow prolonged” (Nuxnx10). There is certainly no closure in al-Macarrl’s
Luznmiyymt. Despite the rhetoric of blame and complaint, questioning
embodies continuous reasoning. Its targets include corruption, conformity,
injustice, hypocrisy, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness. In al-Baymtl’s poem,
these reappear in an autobiographical stance, which gives the poem cohesion
while resurrecting the medium of address from imitativeness and stock
images. Although al-Baymtlinhabits al-Macarrl’s poetic space, his poem
eludes duplication and resorts to dichotomous polarization that sustains
tension and disruption, without a promise of resolution.
Between the rose and the blade
My soul is a fading drop of light
And I fade along with it
We are both to die in this accursed exile
So why father
Did you let me be born, a blind gypsy horse
Who in this vast plain,
Knows not where to die
(Nuxnx12)There is here an incomplete masking as the poet draws the precursor’s auto-
biography and poetics into his own orbit of exile and wandering. In “I am
Born and Burn in My Love,” al-Baymtlsays, “All are alone / the world’s heart
is made of stone / in this kingdom of exile.”^45 There is another reason for this
incompletion. This identification stops short of masking, for al-Macarrl
retains a poetic of his own that partakes of a view of death as a release from
the prison of life. This prison gives al-Baymtl an opportunity to target
al-Macarrl’s villains as agents of deceit, exploitation, and corruption.
Adnnls’ objectifications of forebears
Adnnls’ view of al-Macarrlis different from al-Baymtl’s. It is also informed by
T. S. Eliot’s recognition of English metaphysical poets. His reference to
Eliot’s comment on William Blake shows that Adnnls is familiar with Eliot’s
criticism.^46 Moreover, his discussion of al-Macarrltakes Eliot’s objective
correlative as directed into consideration to bring feeling and thought
together in the manner of metaphysical poetry. Al-Macarrlfits well in this
POETIC STRATEGIES