Curriculum
Arabic Language
Unit 1
0/5
1.1Lesson 1: Exile and Longing for the Homeland by Ahmed Shawqi and the Revival School1.2Lesson 2: The Evening by Khalil Mutran and the Foundations of the Emotional Direction1.3Lesson 3: In Elegy of Maya by Abbas Mahmoud al-Aqqad and the School of al-Diwan1.4Lesson 4: I Love You My Homeland by Mahmoud Hassan Ismail and the School of Apollo1.5Lesson 5: The Eagles by Mohamed Ibrahim Abu Sunna and the New Realist School
Unit 2
0/3Unit 3
0/3Unit 4
0/101.1First: an introduction to the concept of the poetic experience1.2Second: the first element — feeling (wijdān)1.3Third: the second element — thought (fikr)1.4Fourth: the third element, part one — words1.5Fifth: the expressive image, part two — images and imagination1.6Sixth: the expressive image, part three — music1.7Seventh: organic artistic unity1.8Eighth: applying the concept of the poetic experience to the texts1.9Ninth: a summary that must be memorised1.10Exam traps and key takeaways
Text lesson
Lesson 1: The Poetic Experience, Its Elements and Organic Artistic Unity
Lesson 1: The Poetic Experience, Its Elements and Organic Artistic Unity
Overview
Overview
| Comparison aspect | Main idea | Keywords |
|---|---|---|
| The concept of the poetic experience and its three elements |
| feelingwijdānthoughtfikr |
| • |
| conditionsexperiencesucceedrelation |
| Artistic unity and what it is made of | and how to apply all of this to the prescribed texts | applyprescribedtexts |
The poetic experience (al-tajriba al-shi'riyya) ├── Definition: the complete psychological or cosmic picture the poet paints when thinking about │ a matter in a way that takes over his feelings, finding no outlet except the verse he composes ├── Element 1 — Wijdan: gives sincerity and subjectivity; without it the poem is mere versifying │ Not a real experience: outer sense only · imitation · dumb mimicry of nature · occasion verse ├── Element 2 — Fikr: gives precision, orders the thoughts and images, tightens the joints │ Thought dominant = no heat of poetry · feeling dominant = emotional flow · both = permanence ├── Element 3 — Expression: words (no private poetic language) · images (4 standards) │ · music: overt ( metre + rhyme, al-Khalil ibn Ahmad, 'ilm al-'arud ) and covert ├── Organic unity: one subject + one feeling + sequenced interlinked thoughts and images └── Application: Maya's elegy · I Love You My Homeland · The Eagles · Exile and Longing
Lesson 1: The Poetic Experience, Its Elements and Organic Artistic Unity · 1 / 11
First: an introduction to the concept of the poetic experience
First: an introduction to the concept of the poetic experience
| Comparison aspect | Main idea | Keywords |
|---|---|---|
| • |
| Afterstudyingunitypoetry |
| • |
| elementsexperienceuncoverthem |
| The intellectual element | the subject of the poem and the meanings the poet brought | subjectpoemmeaningspoet |
| The emotional element | the sum of the feelings to whose sway the poet was subjected | feelingswhoseswaypoet |
| The expressive element |
| poeticformulationideasmingle |
Definition of the poetic experience
- It is the complete psychological or cosmic picture that the poet paints when he thinks about some matter with a thinking that takes possession of his feelings and sensations, so that he finds no outlet except the verse he composes.
Wijdānalso named emotion, sensation, feeling, or being-moved.
Thought (fikr).
The expressive image, comprising words, structures, images, imaginative figures and music.
Lesson 1: The Poetic Experience, Its Elements and Organic Artistic Unity · 2 / 11
Second: the first element — feeling (wijdān)
Second: the first element — feeling (wijdān)
- Wijdān is the most prominent element of the poetic experience; its presence secures the experience emotional sincerity. It is the foundation of the experience — otherwise the poem turns into versifying without feeling.
- What issues from mere outward sense-perception without emotional involvement.
- What the poet brings by imitating another, or by copying from others.
- What mimics nature with a deaf imitation.
- What is produced for occasions.
- It is not restricted it is general and covers the cosmic, psychological, social or human aspects.
- Its basis is the sincerity of being-moved.
- It is not necessary that it be realistic — it may be an imaginary experience that is still sincere, so long as the poet is faithful in conveying what he imagined as he suffered it and re-presented it.
Lesson 1: The Poetic Experience, Its Elements and Organic Artistic Unity · 3 / 11
Third: the second element — thought (fikr)
Third: the second element — thought (fikr)
| Comparison aspect | Main idea | Keywords |
|---|---|---|
| • |
| poeticexperienceproductfeeling |
| Feeling gives it its subjectivity and its spirit | ||
| Thought guarantees its precision | and helps to order the thoughts and the images and tighten the joints between the parts into a completed work of art | helpsorderthoughtsimages |
- If the intellectual side outweighs the experience, it loses the spirit and the warmth of poetry and falls outside its range.
- Its example the saying of Sheikh Ali al-Laythi after the Urabi revolution, which carries a direct piece of wisdom: “Each is the harvest of its opposite, so hold to patience — on it everything relies.”
- If the side of sensation outweighs, the experience loses its value and becomes an emotional flow-out.
- Its example a poet who multiplies “wāhā… wāhā”, repeating the groan without any effect on hearts.
- Whenever an experience has the warmth of emotional sincerity together with the depth and soundness of thought, it rises and stretches into wide human horizons and gains the element of permanence and immortality.
Lesson 1: The Poetic Experience, Its Elements and Organic Artistic Unity · 4 / 11
Fourth: the third element, part one — words
Fourth: the third element, part one — words
| Comparison aspect | Main idea | Keywords |
|---|---|---|
| There is no language peculiar to poetry |
| everywordusedloaded |
| • | The old rhetoricians and critics dwelt on the standards of the beauty of the poetic word | rhetoricianscriticsdweltstandards |
| Clarity and precision of sense | ||
| Distance from discord (tanāfur) among its letters | ||
| The eloquence of fronting and delaying (taqdīm and taʾkhīr) | ||
| Mentioning and omitting | ||
| Emphasis | ||
| The links between sentences and the rest |
Lesson 1: The Poetic Experience, Its Elements and Organic Artistic Unity · 5 / 11
Fifth: the expressive image, part two — images and imagination
Fifth: the expressive image, part two — images and imagination
The standards of a good image
- That it be from the inspiration of the inner sense and an echo of it, not built on mere outward perception.
- That its material be consistent with the feeling that inspired it.
- That it have an organic function in the experience — working in the forward movement of its growth or in completing the artistic creation until it reaches its aim of delight and conviction.
- That it be closer to suggesting the idea than to stating it outright.
| Comparison aspect | Main idea | Keywords |
|---|---|---|
| The partial image |
| bringssmallideathrough |
| The total image |
| representsartisticframeworkpoet |
Lesson 1: The Poetic Experience, Its Elements and Organic Artistic Unity · 6 / 11
Sixth: the expressive image, part three — music
Sixth: the expressive image, part three — music
- Music is an element of the expressive image; it has its effect in the soul’s acceptance of the experience and its being moved by it. Music is two colours.
- It relies on the regularity of metre and rhyme and everything with a sound-ring the ear perceives.
- Metre (wazn) the sound units on which poets compose their poems; the unit is called tafʿīlah because it is built from the root “fa-ʿa-la”.
- Every set of feet forms a metre-mode (baḥr) , and the first to catalogue the modes was al-Khalil ibn Ahmad.
- Each mode has a name such as al-Ṭawīl, al-Wāfir, al-Kāmil; and the discipline that studies the metres of poetry is called ʿilm al-ʿarūḍ.
- Rhyme (qāfiyah) the agreement of two or more lines in their final letter. The condition on the word that carries the rhyme is that it be born of the subject, settled in its place, neither dragged in for the metre nor forced where it does not belong.
- A poet may observe besides this words matching in their rhythm — as in the saying of Abu Tammām.
The covert colour
- It is apprehended by the soul through the experience itself, and produces in it its own shocks and oscillations.
- Its source is the interaction of the words, phrases, images and imaginative figures, and their consistency within one harmonic whole that has its effect on the soul.
Lesson 1: The Poetic Experience, Its Elements and Organic Artistic Unity · 7 / 11
Seventh: organic artistic unity
Seventh: organic artistic unity
- If you read a poem of the Romantic school you find it speaking of one subject, dominated by one feeling, with its thoughts and images running in sequence, interlinked and completing one another.
- Unity of subject .
- Unity of feeling .
- The sequencing of thought and images under that unity of thought and feeling, their interlinking and their completing one another.
- Every idea and every image performs its living function in the building of the experience, helping the artistic creation to grow and to reach completion.
- It makes the poem a living being in which each part has its function and its place.
- It prevents the multiplicity of aims and the jarring of parts, and secures conviction and delight.
- It is what the school of al-Diwan called for, and what the schools of Apollo, Mahjar and the New (Realist) school took up.
Lesson 1: The Poetic Experience, Its Elements and Organic Artistic Unity · 8 / 11
Eighth: applying the concept of the poetic experience to the texts
Eighth: applying the concept of the poetic experience to the texts
| Comparison aspect | Main idea | Keywords |
|---|---|---|
| “In Elegy of Maya” (al-Aqqad) |
| sincerefeelingrunningshock |
| “I Love You, My Homeland” (Mahmoud Hassan Ismail) |
| feelingthoughtransomdense |
| “The Eagles” (Abu Sunna) |
| thoughtmethodslifetotal |
| “Exile and Longing to the Homeland” (Shawqi) |
| experienceyearningemulationmuʿāraḍah |
| When analysing, we ask |
| whatexperiencefeelingembodied |
Lesson 1: The Poetic Experience, Its Elements and Organic Artistic Unity · 9 / 11
Ninth: a summary that must be memorised
Ninth: a summary that must be memorised
| Comparison aspect | Main idea | Keywords |
|---|---|---|
| • | Experience = sincere suffering + a taking-over act of thinking + expressive formulation | Experiencesinceresufferingtaking |
| • |
| Feelingsinceritywarmththought |
| Image |
| innersenseconsistentfeeling |
| Music | overt (metre and rhyme) and covert (the interaction of words and images) | overtmetrerhymecovert |
| Artistic unity | unity of subject + unity of feeling + the sequencing of thought and images | subjectfeelingsequencingthought |
Lesson 1: The Poetic Experience, Its Elements and Organic Artistic Unity · 10 / 11
Exam traps and key takeaways
Exam traps and key takeaways
| Comparison aspect | Main idea | Keywords |
|---|---|---|
| The definition has three fixed parts | the complete picture (psychological or cosmic) · a thinking that takes possession of the feelings · no outlet except the composed verse. Dropping “takes possession of the feelings” turns it into ordinary description | completepicturepsychologicalcosmic |
| Three elements, with their exact jobs |
| wijdāngivessinceritysubjectivity |
| The four things that are not successful experiences | mere outward sense without involvement · imitation or copying · deaf mimicry of nature · occasion-poetry. “Occasion poetry” was also Mutran’s and al-Diwan’s chief complaint against the Revivalists — the two questions are linked | mereoutwardsensewithout |
| An experience need not be realistic | an imaginary one is valid if the poet is sincere about what he imagined and suffered. “Only realistic experience counts” is a wrong option | imaginaryvalidpoetsincere |
| The two imbalances and their named examples |
| thoughtdominantlossspirit |
| The outcome when both are present |
| risewidehumanhorizons |
| There is no special language for poetry |
| trapoptionneedsparticular |
| Four standards of a good image, in order | from the inner sense (not outward perception only) · material consistent with the feeling · an organic function toward delight and conviction · suggestion closer than outright statement | innersenseoutwardperception |
| Image types |
| partialsmallideasimile |
| Music terms to place exactly | tafʿīlah from the root fa-ʿa-la · a set of feet = a baḥr · al-Khalil ibn Ahmad was the first to catalogue the modes · the science is ʿilm al-ʿarūḍ · rhyme = agreement in the final letter | tafʿīlahrootfeetbaḥr |
| The condition on the rhyme-word |
| bornsubjectsettledplace |
| • |
| Overtmusicwhathears |
| • |
| Artisticunitysubjectfeeling |
| Text mapping to revise quickly |
| Mayaelegyshockdefiance |
Lesson 1: The Poetic Experience, Its Elements and Organic Artistic Unity · 11 / 11
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