THE PRE-ROMANTICS 112The theme of suffering is dominant in 'Aqqad's verse. In one poem he writes
(p. 184)How I strive to sing the gay song of life...
But soon I discover that what I have taken to be singing
Is in truth no more than a sigh of pain.In 'Outpourings' (p. 198) we get perhaps the clearest statement of the poet's
grief: 'My verse is my tears! 'Aqqad's despair is shown in 'Al Ma'arri and His
Son' (p. 188), a dialogue which he imagines to take place between Ma'arri
and his unborn child whom Ma'arri chose never to beget, about the value of
life, and which he concludes with the thought that on balance it is better not
to be bom. This romantic languor and despair, partly a pose, partly an expres-
sion of the dominant malaise of the time, gradually gives place in 'Aqqad's
poetry, as he grows older, to a strong element of intellectuality, unfortunately
very much to its detriment. The result is that sometimes the reader has to
labour for the meaning of a line which is not commensurate with the effort
involved. What is also absurd is that the author himself, anxious that the
reader does not miss the point, supplies a prose explanation at times, as in
'Life and the Universe' (p. 169) which consists of philosophic meditations on
the place accorded by God to man in the universe, or 'The Dead World'
(p. 171), a poem dealing with a theme similar to that of Coleridge's Dejection
Ode, namely how the poet's unhappiness robs his vision of the world of
sources of joy, since 'we receive but what we give'. This is prefaced by a prose
introduction on idealistic, subjective and solipsistic positions in philosophy.
In his volume The Wayfarer 'Aqqad tries to show that the distinction between
poetical and unpoetical subjects is a false one and that all subjects, however
insignificant and ordinary, are capable of poetic treatment. He therefore sets
out to compose poems of unequal merit on everyday-life sights and sounds
like the ironer, or hawkers' cries in the street. That many of these poems,
like much of 'Aqqad's later output, have no great poetic value has never been
shown more clearly than by the distinguished Lebanese critic Marun'Abbud
in his spirited and somewhat vehement attack on 'Aqqad."Among 'Aqqad's most interesting poems are those dealing with'demons'.
In 'The Demons' Contest' (pp. 54ff.), which is written in a stanzaic form based
upon a skilful use of the muwashshah, Satan, the chief devil, holds a contest
among the devils in an attempt to prove which of them is worthy of con-
trolling the Kingdom of Hell. The contest in which Pride, Envy, Despair,
Regret, Lust, Sloth and Dissemblance participate is easily won by Dissem-
blance. Here the vices are personified in a manner reminiscent of the treat-
ment of the Deadly Sins in the western poetic tradition. A much better-known