Epilogue
By contrast with earlier poetry, modem Arabic poetry is, in general, character-
ized by a spirit of revolt: the student of this period cannot but be struck by the
variety and multiplicity of schools and styles and by the extent of restless and
indeed hectic experimentation which went on and is still going on unabated.
The last hundred years or so have witnessed the amazing journey which,
under the cultural impact of the West, Arabic poetry has travelled from the
mournful traces of encampments in the Arabian desert to the tragic Waste
Land of western Europe and America, and even further still to the night-
marish and paradoxical world of the surrealists and post-surrealists and the
Messianic and millenial Utopia of Marxists. En route it has passed through the
tombs and ruins of Night Thoughts, known the raging seas and howling winds
of the pre-Romantic Sublime, inhabited for a while the magic casements, the
beautiful but forlorn fairyland, mingled with nature, landscape and seascape,
meditated over Le Lac, held communion with the Muses and Les Nuits, ex-
perienced the Sorrows of Werther and the vague and almost metaphysical
yearning of the Romantics in general, as well as the ritualistic, hieratic
and sacred images, hints and suggestions of the Symbolists — to mention but
a few of the familiar landmarks and experiences of the long, often winding
and at times tortuous route.
No doubt this final stage of development is not the exclusive feature of
Arabic poetry; this is also where modern Japanese poetry, to mention but one
of many instances of Oriental literature, has apparently arrived.^1 Indeed there
may be some useful parallels to be drawn between the experiences of both
Arabic and Japanese poetry, as both were exposed to profound and pervasive
western influences at roughly the same time. One could go even further and
claim that there are great stylistic similarities in most of the sophisticated
poetry written in the world today, irrespective of the language in which it is