cAbd al-Xabnr’s impersonation of the panegyric tradition increases therichness of the text.
((An ambivalent voice)):
Prosperous joy replaced that preceding lamentation
((A happy voice)):
No sooner had the bereaved frowned than he had to smile
((A jovial voice)):
You are a florid crescent brilliantly shining.
(Ibid. 422)
This voicing continues to account for modes and accentuations in the
panegyric tradition. Meanwhile, the persona intimates how bored he is with
the “m” rhyme scheme and, indeed, with the whole performance. However,
no matter how critical he sounds, the mere act of conscious impersonation
re-inscribes the classical poem as an enduring subtext, for, to use Eliot, “the
conscious present is an awareness of the past.”^61 Ironically, the poem, which
cAbd al-Xabnr cites as representing his first encounter with objective correla-
tives and masks through Eliot’s “Tiresias,” derives its catalyst from this
confrontation with the past, its court, poets, and discourse.
On the other hand, in his other poem, “Aqnlnlakum” (I Say to You), the
poet as the speaker in the poem vies for a voice amid others who, perhaps, are
not ready to allow him such a space. To deflate their expectations of a presence
comparable to that of predecessors and forebears, he sneaks into the poetic
plethora through a proclamation of his limits. Ironically, however, these limits
relate to life conditions as much as they relate to classical criteria of excellence.
But I passed through ordeals to articulate content
To combine matter with manner
To let you listen to me, amid an ensemble of voices^62
In other words, the poet emphasizes differences, variants, and displace-
ments, between his situation and that of his forebears in order to obliquely
enhance his achievement. “The strength of any poet,” says Harold Bloom, “is
in his skill and inventiveness at substitution,”^63 and cAbd al-Xabnr never tired
of the process. The many voices he recollects serve as a foil for his present
status as a modern poet in trying circumstances. The dialogic principle
expands the poem beyond the lyrical, and broadens its scope through the
inclusion of other profiles and speeches.
2 Dedications Although the use of mirrors may encapsulate the poem as
vortex, not as reflection, these may operate as dedications like any others
which preface poems. Along with other paratexts, they serve not only to
recollect forebears and re-establish them in context, but, significantly, to
redeem tradition from fixity and dormancy. Dedications are dynamic grounds
for great activity on the levels of style and vision. They reclaim space from
hegemonic discourse and involve it in dynamic interaction with potential for
POETIC STRATEGIES