Khalil Mutran, Historical Poems and Political Struggle

From the time immemorial, poetry has been the manifestation of events of its own time and a large number of poets including Mutran have emphasized on historical events in their poems. The current study, besides surveying Mutran's historical poetry, will discuss his outlooks about the relationship between history and politics. As such, it reviews Mutran’s stance against tyrants of history and explains his role in Innovation Movement in his historical poems and the poetic style he used to express his viewpoints. This research shows that the poet didn’t use the historical poem as a tool to record historical events but applied it for sanctifying the freedom and coping with the tyranny, thus he condemns nations who bow to tyrants with humility and submission and praises those who stand firmly against oppression and in this way didn’t suffice pray and false hope. Mutran is inspired by not only the past and the present history of Egypt rather he also pays attention to history of other nations such as Persia and Rome; because he believes in close relationships among nations and this relationship is like revenge from oppressors. Mutran in his historical poems includes his innovation aspects i.e. narrative style to attract audiences of any time and at any place. He employed other expressive techniques such as sarcasm in his language. He is also not unaware to use illustrations in his language.