THE ROMANTICS 174body returns to his sinful way of life. This disillusioned and cynical view
of mankind is shown in another short verse drama in the same volume,
called 'Torture', in which a painter surprises his wife, the model of his
pictures, with his best friend and as a result of his torture and her feelings
of guilt she is driven to commit suicide by throwing herself out of the window.
Infidelity and treachery are further aspects of a sinful world.^146
There is relatively little experimentation in stanzaic form in Abu Risha's
poetry, and in this respect he tends to be more conservative than many of the
romantic poets. However, his vehement passion, his fiery imagination, his
profusion of vivid and at times violent imagery (which has particularly struck
his critics)^147 and the peculiar quality of his sensibility make his poetry belong
undoubtedly to the romantic school. Abu Risha wrote not only dramatic but
also narrative verse such as 'Muhammad' and 'Khalid'. But he is primarily
a lyric and subjective poet. Even in his nationalistic and political verse the
subjective element is very strongly pronounced. In his poetry one meets with
many of the themes of the romantics: descriptions of the spiritual effect of
nature, especially the beauty of the Syrian and Lebanese landscape; descrip-
tions of storms, of bare autumn landscape ('The Starved Meadow'^148 ), medi-
tations among the ruins of ancient civilization; human suffering such as that
of an innocent child deprived of love and affection (The Orphan'^149 ), the
alienation of creative genius driven to cruel and premature death by lack of
recognition and the insensitivity of society, which drive the artist to drown
his sorrows in drink (Death of an Artist'^150 ). In 'light', Abu Risha laments
the disappearance of mystery from the world as a result of the spread of light.
The same idea occurs in 'The Poet of Nature' where beauty is felt to lose its
mystery in broad daylight. Likewise, in 'Morphine' the poet asks his woman
companion to leave him 'before dawn can dissipate the remaining mystery
of the dark', which implies that the poet prefers not to know the truth.^151
Woman and politics are the main subjects of Abu Risha's poetry. As has
been suggested, his attitude to woman is ambivalent: it is one of physical
attraction and moral revulsion, of approval and condemnation. In 'Tranquil-
lity' the poet describes a raging snow storm outside his room at night after his
passion has been spent, the naked and seductive mistress unable to arouse in
him any more sexual feelings. Despite his indulgence, or perhaps because of
it, he is a profoundly melancholic man, woman being the source of both his
joy and his sorrow. In 'A Woman' he urges his mistress to forget their pas-
sionate past, try to rise above the desires of the flesh, 'to set free their souls
to reach what lies beyond the world of illusion, to meet like two angels whose
longing for one another does not go beyond the meeting of their lips'.^111
In 'Ennui', a poem with a Baudelairean title about man's eternal restlessness,