THE ROMANTICS 150transference of his fiance'e Olga much in the same way as La Belle Dame
in the poem La Belle Dame sans Merti may be regarded as a symbolic trans-
ference of Keats's betrothed, Fanny Brawne. As a further instance of the
complexity of Abu Shabaka's poem it may be pointed out that Ghalwa's
illness occurs in the winter while her recovery begins to take place in the
month of May which the poet describes as the 'nuptial' of Nature and Ghalwa
is then seen by the poet as 'Eve amidst delicious fruit' and as 'having known
good and evil'.^88 The immediate implication is that she recovers when she
accepts her own sexuality. The seasonal background to the events lends them
a larger significance and seems to lift them to the level of myth: Ghalwa
becomes the Female principle. Mother Earth which 'recovers' in Spring.
The full tragic impact of the contrast between the two sides of woman, the
angelic and the diabolic, is felt in Abu Shabaka's celebrated volume The
Serpents of Paradise. This volume, which contains thirteen poems written
between 1928 and 1938, is certainly his best-known work and the one which
created the image of Abu Shabaka as the Aiabpoite maudit."^9 In a short poem
under the title 'Lust for Death'^90 the poet poses as a complete rebel, who
has revolted against all laws, human and divine; a misanthrope and a lover of
gloom, a sadist with a distinct preference for the sight of blood, and in
whose life the only things that matter are drink and women. By means of
the violent sensations induced by lust and wine he can obtain his escape
from loathsome reality even in the certain knowledge that this escape means
death. In this poem, in fact, we have many of the basic motifs of the whole
volume.
In the long introduction to The Serpents of Paradise entitled 'Talking of
Poetry', in which significantly enough the discussion is virtually confined
to current French theories of poetry, Abu Shabaka attacks Paul Vale'ry and
sides with the Abbe" Bremond (on some points). The main issue involved is
the role of inspiration in poetry. Vale"ry's well-known belittling of the impor-
tance of inspiration is rejected outright by Abu Shabaka who makes poetry
exclusively a matter of inspiration, and, therefore, questions the validity
of all attempts to theorize about the nature of poetry, or to find in poetry
anything that approaches a system. When Vale'ry claims that a poet can
compose poetry at will and is not utterly dependent on chance, he is, in Abu
Shabaka's view, relegating the poet to the position of a craftsman, and
'nothing can be further from the truth or can involve a more scandalous
degradation of the essence of poetry', than to regard it as a mere matter of
craftsmanship. Abu Shabaka even denies that a true poet has the power
to choose the right word since, prophet-like, he receives his poetry from
above and 'poetry descends upon him fully clothed'.