A Critical Introduction to Modern Arabic Poetry

ABU SHADI 121

is amply shown in his volume: The Dewdrops of Dawn. For instance in 'Inspired
by Rain' he says:

Raindrops are falling upon the blooms,

Flowers pass them round and all are drunk.

But I am all alone, looking in vain

For my beloved to cool the ardour of my passion

and in 'Devotions'^12 — a poem in which Mandur^13 finds the incontrovertible
evidence that Abu Shadi was a born poet — we find him uttering this moving
and simple cryj

What is the matter with my eyes that whenever I see you they weep?

Is it with joy they weep or for fear that my dream be shattered?

My hope neither fades away nor does it grow bright

And like a man lost and weary I rush to seek refuge with illusions.

Yet Abu Shadi's poetry published after his return from England has on
several counts disappointed many critics: the simple and lyrical early poetry
has given place to what was felt to be stilted, forced and unmusical verse."
It is true, of course, that Abu Shadi deliberately avoided the facile and super-
ficial type of verse which relied largely on music and that he wrote far too
easily and far too much. Kamal Nash'at enumerated the weaknesses of Abu
Shadi's style (in the poems written during the long period stretching from
his return from England in 1922 to his immigration in 1946) as improvisa-
tion, lack of concentration and polish, forced rhymes, obscurity, the frequent
absence of connections between his poetic statements and a tendency to
think in English rather than in Arabic which had a corrupting influence
on his Arabic style. Despite these numerous defects, Nash'at goes on, 'Abu
Shadi has poems of a high order, free from faults and characterized by deep
passion and purity of style'. These, however, are 'scattered like small oases
in a vast desert' and 'most of this beautiful poetry is to be found in the work
of his mature late middle age and was written in his new environment of
freedom, the product of acute suffering and overwhelming nostalgia for his
homeland'.^15 Yet nowhere does Nash'at show in any detail where the
greatness of these late poems lies. In fact, despite the large volume of what
has been written on it, Abu Shadi's work still awaits an impartial critical
investigation. All too often he is either too lightly or categorically dismissed
as not sufficiently poetical, or he is given fulsome and bardolatrous praise in
terms that are far too general and uncritical.^16 The only possible exception
is Nash'at's study in which a serious attempt is made (in chapter v) to analyse
the 'new aspects in Abu Shadi's early poetry'.