THB ROMANTICS 164logical or metaphysical. It is true that in his conception of poetry the emotional
and subjective element looms rather large: in poems like 'My Poetry', 'To
Poetry', 'I Have Said to Poetry' and 'The Idea of the Artist'^124 poetry is
regarded as a direct expression of emotion, providing relief for the poet and
solace to man in a world full of suffering.^12 * The artist is the man who
develops his capacity for feeling and sympathy (the kind of sympathy that
made it possible for Shabbi to write such a moving account of the experience
of a bereaved mother in the poem 'A Mother's Heart', p. 129) whereas
intellect leads to sterility. In Shabbi's actual practice it is clear, even from
this brief account, what a large role emotions play. One scholar has counted
no fewer than 1118 words signifying suffering in the collection Songs of
Life."^6 Yet from his earliest work such as the poem 'Fair Tunisia', written
in 1925 (p. 13), Shabbi has shown his commitment to Tunisia, his pledge to
continue to be the voice ('the divine voice') to awaken his country, whatever
be the ill-treatment or persecution he might receive at the hands of his society.
In moments of impatient anger, for example in the poem 'Let Them Die'
(p. 14), he says that a people that willingly and passively submits to injustice
and tyranny deserves to be allowed to die and be forgotten. A similar senti-
ment is expressed in poems written as late as 1933 (To the People') and
1934 ('The Dead World') (pp. 175-84). Like many aspects of the work of this
poet, his attitude to the Tunisian people has provoked much controversy.^127
But there can be no doubt whatsoever regarding the degree of his involve-
ment with the Tunisian people. In 'A View of Life' he urges his people, in
almost direct neoclassical hortatory fashion, never to lose their serious out-
look or give in to despair (p. 15). In a series of powerful poems, including
'The Roaring Storm' (p. 42), 'To the Tyrant' (p. 43), Thus Spake the Days'
(p. 58), To the Tyrants of the World' (p. 185) and the celebrated 'The Will
for Life' (p. 167), he predicts the heroic struggle of his people against
foreign occupation and tyranny and the certain downfall of the latter. 'Son of
my Mother' (p. 88) urges man, who was born free like the breeze or light, to
sing like birds and roam freely in nature, but is content to live in humiliation
and passive obedience to those who chain him, to liberate himself and
move 'to the light, sweet light which is the shadow of the Lord'. One can
go on citing examples. It is sufficient to remember the basic humanity of
a man so sensitive to the suffering of the world; he could write in a poem
entitled 'Glory':
It is not glory to get the earth drunk with blood
And ride a high steed to the war
But to stem the tide of sorrow with all your might
From a stricken world (p. 52)