THE PRB-ROMANTICS 114'The Fallen Idol' (p. 326) or 'War or Peace' (p. 335). In his best poems he is
generally realistic in his approach: far from being an idealized object the
beloved is in fact as much a dissembler as she is intelligent and beautiful.
The lover is wracked by doubts (the type which he described at length in his
novel Sara) and when she proves to be untrue he endures much suffering in
an attempt to forget her. The following is an example of the quiet and real-
istic tone of this type of poetry: 'Forgetting', the mood of which is reminiscent
of some of Hardy's poems (pp. 332—3):
Time has cast us adrift on its sea, we are lost in its wastes, like two beings
who have never met.
No longer are you the dearest one to me, nor am I your sole comfort in this
world; no longer are we prepared to die for one another...
Strange is our past and strange too our present. Is it like this that the
landmarks of our lives go, leaving no trace behind?
These lips, is there in their smiles any mark of her kisses which happened
not so long ago?
These eyes, where are the traces in their looks of her merciful touch or the
bliss of her breath? Nothing, not a word or a sign has remained.
Only a memory that haunts life, sick, orphaned and fraught with shame,
then it will pass as if it had never been.This is just as disturbing as the equally muted poetry of Hardy (for whom
incidentally 'Aqqad had great admiration).^54