Assalamualaikum and welcome back to English Poetry
at the Islamic University of Gaza. I hope that you
all and your loved ones are safe and sound after
yet another Israeli brutal attack on Gaza. Today,
we continue to work on romantic poetry. We go back
to Chile. We examined one of the most fascinating
poems of all times. That's Ozymandias. I'll go
back to Ozymandias. We'll do something else in
addition to examining the poem. And I'll start
with that. When we talk about poets, probably we
mentioned this early in the course. Why poets? Why
we need poets? What is it that poets do that
others do not do? Let me ask you this question
again. Do we really need poets in our societies,
in our lives? Are they significant? Can we do
without them? Can life be the same without poets?
What is it that poets do to make life different or
special or better or bad? Can you live Like,
honestly, can you live a whole month or a whole
year without reading a poem, listening to a poem,
listening to a song, reciting a song? What is it
that we find appealing? Why? Again, here,
basically, I'm talking about other than the beauty
of the language The ingenious ways they employ
literal devices and sounds and the way they word
their stuff, their originality and everything. I'm
talking about ideas and thoughts. and
contributions to civilization, to society. I think
what we need from poets is that they are having
control over words. So in their words, they have
emotions, and they evoke the emotions of other
people. So they can convey a strong message that
they want to the other people. And when the
people's feelings move, then it will turn out to
be action. So it is important for people to
improve their country and to improve themselves to
reap the fruit. So okay if you're talking about
the ability to convey emotions and feelings in
words and then the ability to turn these words
into action. Who does this? Like who does this
generally in life other than poets? Is it only
poets who convey, don't teachers sometimes do
this? Don't parents do this? What is it that is,
we feel special about poetry? And about poets?
Like a taxi driver could give you, could express
his advice. No offense to taxi drivers, I'm just
giving you an example. Yes.
Okay, so there is this special thing about deep
analysis, the profound, you know, digging deeper
and deeper rather than going for the superficial
mundane things. I believe that, first of all, as
Rizwan said, some people have so much emotions but
they can't find the words. So literature in
general, whether poetry or prose, gives you those
words. Another thing is Reading literature
sometimes helps us overcome our troubles, because
when we read literature, we feel that there are
people who think out of the same But again,
doesn't this apply to other mundane things? If
you, I don't know, if you are a parent, you have a
shopping list to do, you have little money, you
have too many things to buy and you read it. It
could be a life changing experience because the
things, is this the same? What's the difference
between like say a shopping list and a poem? Okay.
I think okay imagine a father again you know
struggling you know the economical situation
around the world and how people are struggling to
afford to put food on the table and somebody
realizes that he has to buy so many things at the
same time he has or she has very little money
that's going to it's going to be like a poem
So what's the difference? Why do we have poets?
What is the main job of a poet? I think that
poetry makes you feel responsible upon something
you didn't feel responsible about, like defending
the land or doing something good or maybe make a
charity. sometimes you see a poor person and you
don't think to give him money or her. So poetry
makes you to think about this. But when I'm
talking about a father who has responsibility over
his family, it's normal to feel responsible. So
you don't need poetry to feel responsible about
that. So poetry doesn't change our relationships
between, like if you have a, don't you like your
mom more when you read one particular poem, you
listen to one particular song? But does this love
increase, decrease? Increases. Does poetry
contribute to increasing, decreasing things? This
question is in my heart. Please. Please, yes. I
think poets have the ability to say stuff that we
feel but can't say. So yes, when you read a poem
about mothers in general, I can relate to the
feelings, but I myself, it never occurred to me to
say them this way. When I read them in a poem, if
somebody is speaking your mind, you know? And like
another thing, you said about like what's the
difference between like a father who lectures you
and like a poet who is also in a way another
lecturer in a poem. Well, it's different because
like I think we choose to listen to the poem and
like even if it was all dictation, full of stuff
that… Preaching, yeah. Yeah, teaching, we still
wouldn't like feel it this way because like we
choose to listen to it and we like think of it
more than when someone just comes to us directly
So you're saying that here sometimes when
something is dictated to us, you know, when we're
given orders, commands, we tend to, you know, to
be reluctant to do, to follow. But if something is
written in such a way, in such an attractive,
poetic way that speaks our minds, but at the same
time does not make us feel that we're just blindly
following somebody. It's this thing that answers
some call from inside that makes you feel that
it's special because you find poetry different.
Yes, I think even their arguments aren't
convincing enough that they're degrading in a way
to appeal to people. Okay, okay. But we do have
other people who are as convincing as poets. Don't
we? So, what is the main job of poets? If you are
a poet, what would you be doing and why? Poets are
responsible to start things and they call people's
attention to something or they make people pay
attention to something that they are part of. For
example, when I read about such as the incitement
party or the resistance,
So you're talking about two things here. Number
one, the ability of many poets to defamiliarize
things, to push us to reconsider things, even the
very mundane, the things that we see every day,
but we don't pay attention to. And now the poets
present these things in a way that attracts our
attention, that makes us pause, think, and
reconsider our position, our stances. And you
mentioned another point, which is really very deep
here, about how poets usually initiate. They start
things. And this is something that mirrors Freud's
famous statement, the poets were there before me.
You know Freud, psychoanalysis? When he was
looking for examples to clarify, to illustrate his
ideas about psychoanalysis and everything, he
found himself almost always quoting literary
works, works of fiction drama, poetry. And he came
to the conclusion that poets were there before me,
every, all my ideas. have been in a way or another
expressed, mentioned, discussed, elaborated on by
poets. And that's why he says, poets were there
before me. Actually, after this course, I feel
like writing poetry is in the sake of writing
poetry. This is the thing that it's up to you what
you want to take from this poem. Actually, when we
take some poems we like, we have different symbols
from different perspectives. So I think this is
the job of the poem.
It's up to the reader what he wants to take from
the speech. It depends. Some people believe that.
I'm writing just for the sake of writing. It's
like I want, there's something inside, I want to
get it out there. I don't care what influence it's
going to have on me or on other people. What I
care about is, again, how, what I do. I just,
there's something. I usually use this stupid
example, but it's like when a mom is due, is
pregnant, nine months, baby, and the baby has to
get out. What happens next just has to get out. I
don't know whether this is in a way similar to
this situation of poets getting out poems, but not
many people will agree that we write for the sake
of writing or even as self-expression. Many people
read about poets, what they say, talk to poets,
people who write poetry. That's why I try to
assign you to write poetry. Okay, you feel the
need to write because I want you to, but by time I
hope that you find yourself able to express
yourself without having to be pushed into this by
somebody. So again, we go back to the idea that
Poetry could be self-expression. There's there's a
movement called art for art's sake Why are you
doing this? Why are you painting? Why are you
writing this? I don't care. I just write I think
it's It's significant for me to write. I don't
care what influence or impact. But then there will
be many people who will say, no, poetry is a tool
of, like you said here, of change, of revolution,
of resistance, of probably teaching, teaching and
delighting. More, please.
This universal thing about them, they touch our
hearts. Sometimes you read a poem in a different
foreign language and you relate. you find it
appealing and sometimes you don't understand
everything about like the words and you know but
sometimes the tune helps with songs especially
like you feel that this is wow we do this
our feelings That's also true. And that's
something that makes poetry special. You could
still express yourself in a way, in an allegorical
way, you know, Ahmed Shawqi, Barazas Ta'ala Abu
Yaman and those very allegorical poets. You can
escape political persecution.
And it's just like yesterday I was in a car with
my dad and there was a song on the radio, it
literally documents the whole thing. It's just a
song that lasts for three minutes. And this is so
powerful that we can just learn about a whole
nation through a poem. That's true. That's true.
One more? I also believe that poetry and like all
literature in general has the ability to make us
understand ourselves without So sometimes you'd be
reading about a character and you'd say wow that
character is horrible and then all of a sudden it
strikes you that I do this. So it makes us realize
how horrible people are. Like is this again
connected to that idea Nadia raised here, the fact
that When people are preachy, we tend to be
defensive. You know, do, don't, do, don't, do,
don't, do, don't. You feel exposed, true. But a
poet has the ability, a poem has the ability to
capture your essence and to make you realize that,
oh my God, this is about me. This is me. I am
Ozymandias. I am this person or that person. Okay,
one more question. Do you trust poets? Do you
think poets are trustworthy? they are they're not
okay they're not they are are they or are they not
yes or no yes no oh nice it's okay it's up to you
so yes or no yes or no yes or no yes or no yes or
no yes or no yes or no yes or no so most of you
say no okay okay okay okay Now, why? Why? Please.
What if
you have a close friend who is a poet, would you
still trust him? What in this person would you be
trusting? Please.
Okay, most of you are saying him for the poet, it
could be a she. So would you trust him more in
this case if this is, honestly, if you're reading
a poem for a female poet, would you take it more
seriously? Would you, would it? Please?
Okay, she's like a close friend of mine. I would,
like, I trust my friend, right?
Okay. So what is it that you don't trust poets
about? Briefly, yes please. In brief. So is
it good or bad? It's bad, especially for the
teenagers or the beginners in learning. They will
believe what is shown in the poem, yet the poets
are giving the answer that is more than they said.
Okay, so what do you think? Is that bad? Because
some people here are saying, if you tell me
everything, preach me everything, I'm not going to
like it. If you show me, if you do things by
showing me, by making me think, look for the
truth, look for the idea, it would make you part
of the poem. Remember? So yeah, it's true. I like
this again expression. The unsaid is usually more
than the said. Please. I think maybe some poets
can exaggerate the situation or their feelings. Is
that good or bad? Don't we all do that all the
time? Don't we exaggerate when we hate somebody,
when we like somebody, when you... We should be,
but we're not. Most often we're not. Yes, please.
I think poets sometimes try to immortalize things
and erase other things. I remember once you told
us that before Zionism came to Palestine, they
were preparing in prose and poetry. So the poets
can... portray for the people what he wants. And
Ozymandias is a great example. The reader of this
poem, for the first time, he will be ready to
understand, and later he will get the information
about bad kings. Okay, so again, you're
generalizing here. If one poet is using poetry to
deceive and trick, does that mean we need to
distrust all poets?
That's very good. You need to be very careful. You
need to be very cautious about what poets do with
their poetry. True.
In terms of ideas or in terms of language? In
terms of how idealized they are
Okay, so does this mean we tend to like realistic
poetry more, to find ourselves, or at least trust,
do we trust more realistic poets more?
Okay, why wouldn't you trust, like generally
speaking, why wouldn't you trust a poet? I think
not all poets must be taken for granted because
sometimes they only write poetry for the sake of
getting some support in a way or another, whether
financial support or social. Be careful many poets
don't make much money these days Only if you if
you are successful novel writer novelist you could
do that, but short story writers Poets they don't
make much money Okay
Okay,
so sometimes poets not all poets are good people
they do bad stuff they could do would you like a
poetry written by somebody who you don't like if
the man the man or the woman is bad like but they
write good poetry so to speak would you still read
their poetry okay
please
The man himself. So you're trying to detach.
There's something that this of the author, there's
this theory that once poets, once authors, writers
write stuff, it belongs to us, to the readers. And
it also means that the writing is the sum of
everything around them. It's not only them,
because you will always be quoting inspired by
other writers and other authors. These are very
excellent ideas you have. Think about them and see
how you could develop these ideas now.
As Arabs, we have always appreciated pottery.
Pottery has been part and parcel of our life, of
our heritage. It's probably the most significant
thing we had from the Arabs. In addition, you
know, like ancient Arabs were all like 1,000, 2
,000 years ago in addition to later on to Islam
and the Quran and the Sunnah, right? And the only
miracle in Islam for Prophet Muhammad was the
Quran, because Arabs were excellent poets with
rhetoric, with language, with words. They were the
best of the best, how they used language and how
they expressed themselves. Now, in the Quran,
there's a whole surah, a whole chapter named after
the poets as shu'ara. And again, indicating how
significant these people are. They're not
mentioned like we expect them to be mentioned
because the verse says, Now this
is significant, meaning, translate the gist that
poets are only followed by people who don't follow
the truth because they roam, literal translation,
they roam in every valley. They fluctuate, they
change. One time they're here and the other day
they're doing the opposite. Sometime they would be
praising this man and then next week, next month
they would be attacking him or criticizing him.
And this is significant because during the time of
Prophet Muhammad there was Hassan Ibn Thabit, the
famous poet, Prophet Muhammad kind of like brought
him very close to him. He made him his own
personal poet. And he even ordered him to write,
gave him the order to write poetry against the
people attacking, hating the Prophet Muhammad
peace be upon him at that time. And he even, you
know, he made him sit on a pulpit, the minbar, you
know, And nobody else, nobody else of the
Prophet's companions had this place because he was
a poet. And now the interesting thing is that
Hassan was not a warrior. He was not a fighter. We
talk about a time when fighting was probably one
of the most significant things, right? But writing
poetry perhaps was even more significant. So for
this, because poets are significant, Prophet
Muhammad brought this man, Hassan Ibn Thabit,
closer to him, probably closer than any of the
other companions.
And he gave him, he always asked him to write
poetry, to attack, to criticize the people of
Quraysh. And for this, this is the verse. However,
there is always an exception, so there is no
general blanket condemnation of poets. And look at
what sort of poets that are praised here, illa
alladhina aman wa amali, except, so all poets are
bad, except those who believe and do. And some of
you mentioned this in passing, that poets say
stuff, but they don't do it. They are people of
words rather than people of action. So I think
this is one important thing that we look for in
poets. We want poets who are probably realistic,
like you said, connected to life, who push us to
do new things, to break new ground, who speak our
minds, who lead by example, but also poets who
themselves do, they practice what they preach.
They practice what they preach. Look at this, how
poetry can be an act of resistance.
I like this translation. It's like literal. Don't
you see that in every valley there? I think in
Arabic, in the Quran, this is one of the most
beautiful images.
When somebody goes into
a place aimlessly, just walks around wandering
aimlessly. This is what means like they could be
going there. They just can be writing poetry, like
you said, for no reason or for no purpose. Okay,
so despite the fact that Hassan Ibn Thabit did not
fight well, he wasn't a warrior, he was made
special by Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. He
even prayed saying that the angel Gabriel will 41
clapped and said, bala, bala, bala, I like this.
Now, many of us could say that this is a mistake.
Like Jareer committed a mistake, and this is true.
It could be that he committed a mistake, but there
is another interpretation. It could be deliberate.
This man is a genius. He's a poet. In the sense
that he could have done this in order to change
things. I like poetry that subverts the authority
of people, like people in authority, patriarchy
and everything. Poetry that attacks these symbols
of power, of authority, is the poetry that appeals
to me most. And I read this here. I think Jarir,
by doing this, is trying to do two things. Number
one, to shake the image of the caliph. But also
number two, to tell other poets and people that
there are many ways to start a poem. You don't
have to start standing on the ruins and being all
sweet and everything. A poem can begin like this
in a tough and rough way. And talking about
openings, we always go to Abu Nawaz, one of my
favorite poets. Abu Nawaz wasn't an Arab, he was a
Persian. And sadly for this, some critics didn't
like him just for the fact that he was Persian. He
was alcoholic and again people hated him for that.
But remember we don't talk about the person
himself here, we talk about the poet, the poetry.
So this man, again, how he was changing, if not
ideas and society and customs, changing the way
poets would be writing. He hated very much what
for hundreds and hundreds of years Arab poets
would open the poems against standing on the ruins
and remains of the beloved tribe or something. And
I think that must have been boring for some
people, for many people. Imagine you reading or
listening to a poem, like a hundred poems and a
thousand poems, all opening, standing over the
ruins of something. So change was significant.
Again, poets would always start with this. So he
said, قُلّي مَن مَرَّ عَلَى رَسْمٍ دَرَسْ وَاقِفًا
till those people who stand over the ruins of
their... Why don't you sit down? Have a seat. Sit
down. رجليك تعبوك تريح مادره لو كان جلس, and I
showed you some of the memes, yeah, I showed you
again this is another poem, another line, مادره لو
كان جلس, this is that, this is from Abu Nawaz, all of
it فما الوقوف على الأطلال من شأنه, I am not a
person who would stand over, I don't do this, I
don't stand over ruins, it's not something I do, I
like doing, And لتلك أبكي و لا أبكي لمنزلتي, I don't
cry or weep over these things كانت تحل بها هند و
أسموة, I weep for something that happened, for an
experience, I don't weep over. And this, listen, This
could be because again Abu Nawaz wanted to change
the way, but I don't know. Is it because also he
doesn't have roots in wherever he was in Iraq or
here and there? It's like place doesn't mean much
to him because this is not where he is from
originally. He was born somewhere else. I don't
know. It could be both. And I find this very
striking. This is really extreme.
That's really extreme. This is supplication. May
God not have mercy on any eye that cries over the
ruins or the remains. That's very extreme. I did
my memes myself. I try sometimes. I love this. I
never understood this until somebody memed this
woman. So this woman was tasting something. You
know sometimes you eat something that you hate
very much, and just before you spit it out, you
think, wait a minute, this is really different.
You know, I have tasted this, I'm very
adventurous, wherever I travel, I like to try the
food. So sometimes it's like, oh my God, I want to
spit it out. But then you just give it one moment,
and it's like, wow, this is different, special.
So, قُلّي مَن مَرَ عَلَى رَسْمٍ دَرَسْ وَاقِفًا،
مَا دَرَ لَوْ جَلَسْ, O'Dis Famous, like how most
Arab poets would be قفة نبكي من ذكرى حبيبى ومنزلي
بسقط اللوى بين دخولى فحوملى etc But then مادرة لو
كان جلس, sit down, you don't have to stand, Now
look at Al Mutanabbi. We know Al Mutanabbi is
perhaps, some argue that he's the greatest poet of
all times, even surpassing Shakespeare and Dante
and those great poets. It's still an opinion that
some people have. He's no doubt the greatest Arab
poet of all time.
Was a special, was a poet, I'm not sure if you
read any, if you know, like, you will be amazed
how many of the wisdoms you know were said by Al
-Mutanabbi. Masayabu qawmin anda qawmin fawa'id.
It's something from Al-Mutanabbi. One man's poison
is another man's meat. Ma li jurhin bimayitin
ilam. I did one dozen tears. You know, most of the
idioms, the proverbs, the expressions we know, I
don't say most, like some of them come originally
from Al-Mutanabi. Sha'ar Al-Hikma, I think he was
described, the poet of wisdom, anyway. I don't
care.
The thing is that you need to read Al-Mutanabi,
you have to, really. When he, he was, this man was
looking to be, you know, appointed, you know, some
Emir here or there. And he was, you know, keeping
with Seif Eddaoula, and every time, like, Seif
Eddaoula would be rejecting him, like, okay, stay
around, write poetry for me, and that's it. So he
left him, and he went to Egypt, Kafour El Ekhshidi.
Again, hoping that Kafour El Ekhshidi would be
giving him what? You know, some place to rule. And
when he went to Egypt, he was heading to Egypt, he
wrote one of the most beautiful poems of all time.
Again, in anticipating, preparing for the meeting
with Kafour El Ekhshidi. He stayed there in vain.
Kafuri Khashidi was not also willing to give him
some place to rule or something. And he left Egypt
heading back to Syria, and he wrote again one of
the most fascinating poems of all time. So it's
the same thing. You know, I'm praising this man
and attacking him. It's not just attacking him.
The famous poem says, I will return at any cost. I
will return to what has been done to you to renew
it. As for his beloved ones in the desert without
them, He says one
of those lines that, Very memorable. He talks about
the people there in Egypt.
Those people stink that even when the angel of
death takes their souls, it brings, you know, a
stick, so it doesn't touch them. It just takes
their souls with with a stick, that's extreme. So
when he was running away from Egypt, leaving Egypt
behind, some people whose mother, Al-Mutanabbi,
satirized, were coming after him, and he wanted to
run away, until one of his followers, One of his
servants said, Sir, wasn't it you who said, Didn't
you say that, I don't know, the horse, the steed,
the knight, the desert know me, the sword, the
spear, the paper and pen as well? Like, didn't you
say this? Didn't you praise yourself as the
greatest of fighters?
But he wasn't a fighter. He was a fighter in his
own words. But because he wanted to keep his word,
he wanted to tell people that poets are not liars,
that poets are to be trusted. He stood and chose
to fight rather than run away. And he knew he's
going to be killed. And that's why he said to the
man, You killed me. You reminded me of my own
poetry. You made me stop and fight. I'm not a
fighter. But because I said something, I have to
keep my word. That's very beautiful. If you don't
like this about the Mutanabbi, I don't know what
else you're going to like about him. I don't know.
Poets say stuff. Now, we move to Mahmoud Samil
Baroudi, one of the poets of like, I don't know
when he lived exactly, but like 150 years ago or
so. Arab poetry was in really steep decline until
Mahmoud Samuel Baroudi came with the Renaissance
or whatever, the modern Renaissance movement of
Arabic poetry, the classical Arabic poetry. This
man was a fighter, and he was also a poet. That's
why he was described as the lord of the sword and
the pen. Rabb al-saif wal-qalam. Again, you see
what I'm doing here. It's trying to connect how
words and deeds are usually there with poets. And
it's probably these poets that we like more,
because they practice what they preach rather than
just... And we go to another example from
Palestinian culture and poetry, Abd al-Rahim
Mahmoud. Do you know Abd al-Rahim Mahmoud? Again,
he was a great fighter. He was a Palestinian
feday, commando, and he was also a great poet. In
his poem, famous poem, سأحمل روحي على راحتي, We all
know this by heart, و ألقي بها في مهاورة فإما حياته
تسر الصديق و إما ماته يغيظ العدى, I'll carry my
soul on the palm of my hand and throw it to the
abyss of death, It's either a life that pleases a
friend, or friends, or death that teases and spites
the enemy, or something, Now what makes this special
is that Mahmoud Darwish died defending his land,
died fighting the Zionist occupation of Palestine.
He died a fighter. He said something. He preached
us something. Probably these words come to life.
He comes to life every time we read this. He
showed us what to do, what to say, and how to do
it. And I'm not sure what other Palestinian poets
you like, but for many Mahmoud Darwish usually
comes on
say the very opposite of something. So the fact
that he was there early in the days calling for
people to come out, to rise, makes him also a
special poet. Now, Even if you don't do, if you
don't practice what you preach, sometimes, again,
your words are enough. You don't have to be a
poet. Remember we said something about children,
that words were saying that child is the father of
man and something like this. Children don't have
to do anything to influence us, to change us,
right? They just have to be there with their crazy
stuff.
These are two poets, Palestinian poets. They're
not fighters. They didn't fight. They didn't carry
guns or stones or whatever. They just wrote
poetry. And still for that, the Israeli occupation
looked at them in the way Israeli occupation looks
at Palestinians. Moshi Dayan is reported to have
said about Fadwa Tokan, he's a war criminal, he
likened her reading one of her poems to facing 20
enemy commanders, fighters. So one poem by Fadwa
Tokan was viewed by this Israeli war criminal as
20 fighters. So words, so is it again, I find it
difficult sometimes to separate words from deeds,
what you do, because what you say can easily
influence and incite others. You use the term
incite and prompt others to resist. The same thing
happened to Darien Tatour like just three, four
years ago. Darien Tatour is a Palestinian poet who
was sent to prison by Israel for writing poetry.
Again, under the fake accusation of incitement.
And she spent a lot of time in prison, and she
remained for a long time under house arrest. If
this doesn't show us how significant poetry is, I
don't know what does.
Now going back to our friends here, Wordsworth and
Shelley. Many of you like Shelley, listen you could
like something in the poet and not like something
else. Again I don't talk about the poet as the
man, I talk about what they say, his poetry. You
could like this poem but not that poem and that's
okay. Now Wordsworth is accused by many people as
the poet, an escapist poet. Some people would make
fun of him and accuse him of being a tree hugger,
you know, he would just be leaving the sins and
the corruptions of the city and you know all the
social and political decay behind and just close
your eyes. Imagine in the past when you were a
child and life was good. Life was innocent. Life
was beautiful. Or leave everything behind and go
to nature, to the bosom of nature and just do it.
I find this unfair sometimes.
Tree-hugger is too much, I shouldn't be using
this, but I could say that he's an escapist. Some
radicals might even accuse him of being complicit,
because if you're silent, you know the sentence,
the statement, if you're silent in times of
injustice, you're complicit. Especially if you're
special, if you're a poet, you should be speaking
out loud, loud and clear against injustices, like
we've seen with William Blake. But again, that's
the difference. William Blake was a Londoner. Now,
for many people, the fact that William Wordsworth
was calling for some kind of revolution in poetry
and words and language is enough. Because for
them, without Wordsworth, we wouldn't have had
Shelley. He paved the way, he started it. It was
Wordsworth, it was Coleridge who started this
whole great movement of radical change in terms of
language and poetry and also in terms of ideas and
probably political ideas. And by the way, during
his lifetime, there were many files that were
declassified later on. You know, we're talking
about the times and age of revolutions, the
American Revolution, the Industrial Revolution,
but also the French Revolution. And England was
like literally shaking because they were afraid
another revolution is going to take care in
England, to take place in England. So the British
intelligence was spying on both Wordsworth and
Coleridge. And they were like, you can look up the
information and the reports those spies were
writing about Coleridge. And I don't know, I don't
know how they reacted when they were like, oh my
God, those people keep going to Lake District and
staying in this cottage. I'm not sure what they're
planning, what they're going to do. So they would
be sending somebody to listen and, I don't know,
Wordsworth would be saying, I wandered lonely as a
cloud. And if he, was he this, was this man or the
intelligence, like, were they trying to decipher
this, to, you know, to decode it? Is this a symbol
of something? I wandered lonely as what? Is this,
does this, I don't know. But this is something
else. So you could criticize Wordsworth for not
being at least as radical as we want a poet to be,
but don't forget what he did in itself was a
revolution, a revolution that changed people's
mentalities and people's sensibilities and
people's way of viewing the world, of writing
about the world. But Shelley is a different man.
Shelley was openly, and by the way, what we like
about Shelley is something that many people don't
like about Shelley. They say he was clear, he was
open. So he was like a political preacher saying
to us, okay rise, go start up a revolution. I don't
think this is a very simplistic view of Shelley. But
Shelley, in many of his poems, was openly calling
for a revolution, to rise up. And I'm quoting
something here just for the sake of... In the
films of poetry, and I say by Shelley, he says,
poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the
world. They are the law, you know, members of the
parliament, the lawmakers, that's legislators. The
legislative council here, Palestinian Legislative
Council. So poets, They are the leaders, they are
the lawmakers of the society, but they are
unofficial. And also it was him who criticized,
harshly criticized the society, the British
society as being a society where the rich get
richer and the poor get poorer. And all to the
west wind. I'm just taking extracts here. Look at
how he says destroy, he's calling for change,
destroyer and preserver. This is the wind, the
wind of change, I don't know, revolution. It
destroys, but it should also, it destroys to
build. Here or here. He's also here, drive my dead
thoughts to quicken a new birth. And also if you
look there in the bottom here, the trumpet of a
prophecy, oh wind, if winter comes, can spring be
far behind? If winter comes, can spring be far
behind? In The Mask of Anarchy, I mentioned
earlier about the massacre of Manchester when the
British police shot dead many protesters. Again,
that's a very beautiful long poem where he openly
calls for this. And this is again beautiful. I
don't know why some people just don't like Shelley
for being very obvious. Men of England, heirs of
glory Heroes of unwritten story Nurslings of one
mighty mother Hopes of hair and one another Rise
like lions after slumber Wake up like lions when
they wake up after sleep Slumber is sleep You know
slumber party when you go to somebody's place and
have fun and sleep there Rise like lions after
slumber In unvanquishable number Shake your chains
to earth like dew, which in sleep had fallen on
you. Ye are many, they are few. People are many,
the police are few.
Okay, before I go back to Ozymandias, I want you
to say something if you have to say something,
please. Comment on something. Comment on what I
said. Probably we can have time for that, for
parodies. Please. Describing William Blake's work
as being not a Londoner as a play, this reminds me
of the poet that said, I think that this Arab
poet, he tried to... He's an outsider, you mean?
Exactly. Maybe these two can be related. Yes, we
do not accept this, but we accept this.
If you are an outsider, you don't feel, but again,
you are a poet, you have to be special. Even if
you're not there, you have, even Wordsworth said
this, the extra comprehensive sensibility that
poets own that other people don't. And it doesn't
mean he didn't know what was going on in London
and around the UK at that time. Please. Actually,
I love both Wordsworth and Shelley, and at least
people call Wordsworth an escapist, but at least
Wordsworth as a man was true to himself, he didn't
pretend to be something he was not. Is Shelley
pretending something he was not? Shelly had so
many ideas that he expressed in his poetry, but as
a person, he never put them into action. Do you
know that the second generation of the Romantics
were very young, even died young? Shelley and Keats
and Byron, all of them. They were jinxed. And you
might not know this. When Wordsworth and Coleridge
were writing poetry, they were not born yet. They
were born, they wrote poetry, they died, and
Wordsworth didn't want to die. He became like this
patriarchal figure. Please read what Byron says
about Wordsworth and Coleridge.
He attacks them openly in his poetry.
You know who's which romantic poet was More active
in his life than others than just being a romantic
and lying there? Do you know it was Byron? Byron
was always a fighter. He was fighting against the
Ottoman Empire somewhere in Cyprus, I guess.
Shelley was rich. Shelley was also rich. Shelley was
rich. Okay, so three years ago, three years ago,
you know, when we talk about Ozymandias, going 857 00:54:41,560 -->
I don't know what this brings to mind other than
nightmares.
But in no way this looks like this Probably it's
similar in a bit in a way I don't know And
then this one Compare the almost real picture to
the sculpture I'll come back to this in a bit. Now
going back to the text so we can wrap things up.
Remember I told you this is a, we mentioned this
in passing, but I want to repeat things so we have
confirmation.
I said that this could be read in many ways. There
is an American critic, M.H. Abrams, who drew this.
He said there are four main categories. Almost all
literary theories can be categorized under these
four parts. But he doesn't draw a square, he does
a triangle. He says there are theories that
examine the text, the relationship between the
text and the world, the universe. There are
theories that examine the relationship between the
text and the writer, the poet. Expressive, this is
mimetic theories, you know, my missus is my
missus. This is expressive theories. And there are
theories that study the relationship between the
text and the reader, the audience. What is the
fourth category? Thank you very much. The theories
that examine the text, the relationship, like what
we have, the words on the page. We are involved in
a process of close reading of the text. This is M
.H. Abrams, mimetic theories, the relationship
between the text and the world, the universe, how
close the representation is. And then the
expressive theories, basically the romantic theory
here, how poetry is self-expression. and how the
poet and the poem are one, inseparable. And then
the pragmatic theories, the didactic theories,
where poetry is written to teach and delight. So
you examine the relationship between, you examine
the impact the text has on the reader, the
audience. And then finally, the objective
theories, usually this is 20th century theories,
like new criticism and even structuralism,
formalism, and deconstruction, et cetera.
Objective theories, They say the text is self
-enclosed, autonomous, independent of the
surrounding, even the social circumstances and the
life of the author. The meaning of the text is in
the text. All you need to do is to look at the
words on the page, to do a close reading, to
examine the form, the shape, the structure, the
language, the literary devices, the ironies, the
puns, the ambiguity, the paradoxes, and if you
understand this, if you see the binary opposites,
you get the tension, you understand the poem.
Okay? So if we go back to the text, like we did
last time, New criticism, new critic, this is what
we usually do. We focus more on what the text
tells us without the, so this thing, remember we
said that the sonnet here, the poem is a sonnet.
We describe this sonnet as, thank you very much,
some kind of a formless sonnet in the sense that
it doesn't have a regular rhyme scheme.
Even the rhyme scheme itself here has like three
imperfect rhymes. It doesn't have clear structure
in terms of octaves, sextets, couplets. You don't
know where things go, where things end. Now
usually we need to make this observation for us to
ask a very significant question. Why is this? In
order to look for the meaning. Why is this there?
Why does the poet not follow Shakespeare or
Petrarch? This is the kind of question I would be
asking you in your exams. You should be aware of
that. So I might ask you, why doesn't Shelley
follow the Shakespearean sonnet or the Petrarchan
sonnet or both? I could be more specific. In this
case, this question is a little bit general. I
want you to zoom in for the specific point. I want
you to start the answer, your topic sentence
saying that Shelley uses a formless and irregular
sonnet. First, you need to show me where it is,
why, how it is irregular. And second, you need to
connect this with the theme of the topic. So in
many ways, what do we have inside the poem? What
we have inside the poem is ruins, remains, wreck,
right? We have something that's shattered and
broken. We have the remains of something. So in
many ways, I see that he is echoing this. He's
echoing this as if he's saying we don't Arabs,
Africans, we don't deserve a perfect sonnet.
So when the poem is about decline of authority,
decline of about the, I usually like to use this
term because there is less, trunkless, lifeless,
three lesses, right? And boundless, and also
rhymeless, formless, so it's about less, lessness.
about decay, about destructiveness, about
transience of time. This is a romantic theme in
many ways.
The second thing we need to look at is, we
mentioned the rhymes, sorry, the puns here, the
possible puns in lies. The shuttered visage, lies.
Lies there is sitting there, lying around, but
also lies not telling the truth. So the facial
expressions are lying to us. And also mock which
has two meanings, mock to imitate, to copy and
mock to ridicule, to make fun of. But look at how
beautiful this is, how this changes because time
changes. At that time mock meant only mock
imitate. He imitated the facial expressions, these
passions perfectly. But now that it is broken,
destroyed, shattered, half sunk and nothing but
decay and desert and sands around, this means
mocking may make fun, make fun of. Now the most
significant thing, probably one of the most
significant ironies in English poetry is, my name
is Ozymandias, king of kings. Look on my works, ye
mighty and ye and. When we look, what do we find?
It's ironic because it says, I am king of kings,
but in reality, look at him. He's no king, he's
nothing. Even the greatest of us will die also.
But I also want you to think of how now, for
example, when all sculptures have been fixed and
rebuilt by scientists in the past century. So it
was all standing and powerful and then it was
destroyed and now it's going back to. So I think
this changes the way we react to this. Imagine
yourself living in the time of Ozymandias and
passing by this. you would be shaking, right?
You'd be like, oh, because it is intimidating.
This was a sign he's even calling us to despair.
Not his
people, the mighty, like some suggested that this
could be a call for the enemies, look, you can't
defeat us, which changes many things about him.
Now, both the irony and the puns create ambiguity.
Create a paradox here. Does he mean this? Does he
mean that? What does it mean? Does it mean lying?
Does it mean just sitting there?
Now analyzing this is what a new critic would be
doing.
Remember we said post-colonialism with Edward
Said, another post-colonial would be interested on
how the text is constructing the idea, the image
of the other, us. People of the Middle East, Asia,
and Africa, and India, and probably the Caribbean,
South America, like people who are not European,
white, et cetera. I love this statement by Edward
Said from Orientalism. The Orient, us, shock, has
helped to define Europe or the West as its
contrasting image. We always want something to
compare to so we understand where we're lying.
Contrasting image, idea, personality, experience,
et cetera. So we were significant because if we
are backward, they are advanced. If we are
inferior, they are superior. If we are savages,
uncivilized, they are civilized. And there's this
thing about the white man, the moral obligation to
come here and to civilize us. Yes, to take all our
gold and raw materials and everything, but it's
their job to come. It's their moral obligation to
come and to civilize us. So Edward Said would be
questioning how he's constructing this idea, this
negative idea about the Middle East, leaving
everything and focusing on how the sand, the
desert, the antique, the shattered, how he
presents Arabs as or Africans as people who weep
over the spilled milk. We are invested in the
past. We're not invested in the present or even in
the future. I also find two things interesting.
How did this traveler get there? We don't know.
We're not told. How did he understand the
inscription written in ancient Egyptian language?
My assumption is that there must be a guide and a
translator or one person who did this thing. But
what is he doing to them, to the locals? He's
erasing them. They don't exist. They don't exist,
exactly like what Zionist poetry literature did to
Palestine and Palestinians. Palestinians never
existed. It's a land without a people waiting for
a people without a land. And when Palestinians
exist there, they're savages. They're uncivilized.
And I also find it interesting because I'm sure
some of you want to be translators. Sadly,
translators don't take a lot of credit. They're
usually erased. If you do a great job, usually
people don't care about you. If you just make one
tiny little mistake, you have to pay for that.
Okay, look at the feminist reading here. And this
can be seen as overstretching by some of you. Now 1076 01:08:1
but think about this, because there's this, always
please, think about how we have always been
trained and even most of you here, if you paid
attention, when you talk about the poet, you say
he, even when some of you talk about the reader,
you say he. Why would you assume that the reader
is a he? The poet is a he. Okay, so I'll stop
here, but before if you have any question, any
point to raise, please do. Okay, thank you very
much. If you have a question, you can stay behind
or you can rush back to your other classes.