THE DIWAN GROUP 89relatively long introduction to volume v of his Collected Works, enunciates a
number of principles, including the principle that 'the value of a line (bait)
consists in the relation between its sense and the subject of the whole poem,
since the line is only a component part' and the principle that 'a poem ought
to be regarded as a complete whole, not as a collection of autonomous lines'.^31
This is not the place to discuss the value of al-Dxwan in the history of modern
Arabic literary criticism, although it may be mentioned, in passing, that in
spite of its obvious extremism and partisanship, it does contain some of the
best practical criticism produced in Arabic in the first half of the century.
What needs to be pointed out, however, is the fact that' Aqqad succeeded to a
large extent in preparing the reading public, especially the younger genera-
tion, for the acceptance of a new type of poetry, different from the neoclassical.
According to 'Aqqad, there was so much demand for the first volume that it
had to be reprinted only a few months later. Although neoclassicism proved
to be hard to kill, and many poets like 'Ali al-Jarim and Muhammad 'Abdul
Muttalib continued to write poetry in the manner of Shauqi, it can be safely
said that, with the possible exception of Jawahiri and Badawial-Jabal,from
the time of al-Dhvan on no truly major Arabic poet sought to write in the
traditional neoclassical style. And it is no wonder that a radical revolutionary
like the Lebanese Mikhail Nu'aima hailed the appearance of the Diwan with
such rapturous enthusiasm in his own equally, if not more iconoclastic volume
al-Ghirbal (The Sieve) which was published in 1923.
Apart from their belief in the organic unity of the poem, these three poets,
Marini, Shukri and 'Aqqad, had much in common, although by the time the
Diwan was published they had ceased to form a group. All three poets had
a serious and lofty conception of poetry and literature in general. According
to them, poetry, far from being merely a matter of verbal tricks, is, or should
be, the product of a deep emotional experience, and ought to express a
valuable attitude to existence or a philosophy of life. Poets, therefore, should
not prostitute their talents and waste their time writing imitative panegyrics
to rulers or verses on trivial social occasions. The main faults of Shauqi in
'Aqqad's view are (apart from the absence of unity in a poem) absurdity,
imitativeness and preoccupation with accident rather than substance.^32
Poetry, says Shukri in the introduction to his fifth volume of verse (1916),
is essential to life, and 'a true poet regards writing poetry as the greatest
thing he can do in his life, and believes that poetry is his raison d'etre, that
far from being something complementary to his We poetry is in fact its
essence' (p. 360). As 'Aqqad and Mazini expressed it in the Diwan, the aim
of the modem Egyptian author is to write literature which is insani misri
'arabl, that is, universal, Egyptian and Arabic at one and the same time.^33