Critical Study of Blank Arabic Poetry's Form and Content

Arabic literature with its brilliant ancient background are symbols of a great culture which has influenced all the nations that dealt with and been affected by them as well. Arabic poetry due to the influence of the West has seen much of ups and downs. According to the nature of evolution many stages of development caused, more or less, the traditional composing styles to be ignored besides revolution against two basic elements of classic poetry i.e. rhyme and measure. Al-Khalil`s prosodical poem gave place after a long move to the liberated verse which was kindled first by Al-Muwashahat and then replaced by blank and acrostic verses which evolved later, becoming as symbols of rebellion against classical styles of composition that discarded measure, rhyme and external melody, resorting to the esoteric music. This latter form of poems are, known to have short passages, and are void of measure, rhyme and external melody but retain tone and rhythm as their two main remnant elements. Studying the levels of western influence on blank verse a and the western effect on the Arabic literature in fields of prose and poetry besides its differences and the old poetry with its existent modern types, all, here, deserve attention. Blank verse in respect to its structure, form and content will be studied here through the works of poets who composed such type of verses. In addition to that, aspects of difference between blank verse and old poetry and the types of new ones and also the various kinds of criticism they have faced, all will be mentioned as well.