An Analytical Study of the Elements of Imagery and Epic in Qasidat al-Uzriyah

Imagination is one of the key component of poetry and distinguishes artistic poetry from prose, so much that such literary theorists as early as Aristotle, founded the definition of poetry on the concept of imagination. Qasidat al-Uzriyah fi madh al-Nabi wa Āl al-Bayt is one of the longest and the most valuable poems in Arabic literature. This ode possesses a striking literary style and displays a glorious epic style. This ode belongs to the late Iraqi poet Muhammad Kazim al-Uzri, 580 verses of which have survived. One of the salient features of this poem is the use of literary images, especially beautiful images of epic. In various lines of the poem, the poet depicts battle scenes and the glorious feats of ritual heroes by drawing on stunning epic and imaginative images. Since no independent research has been done on the images of this valuable ode of Arabic and ritual literature, such a studying that aims revealing the aesthetics of its imagery is important and necessary. The study tried to enumerate and analyze the most important elements of imagination through a descriptive and analytical method. The results show that the poet has been able to describe the battle scenes and chivalric deeds of the heroes’ fair by sketching the artistic potentials of imagination. The poet has used various types of artistic similes such as eloquent simile, inverted simile, and compound simile as artistic tools to better convey the intended meanings. Likewise, by animating such war tools as swords, spears, or incarnating abstract and mental concepts such as death, times and other concepts consisting of external components of war, the poet has contributed to the dynamism of the images which have gained a remarkable boost as such. In addition to rhetorical images, items such as allusive images and auditory images have helped the poet to map and expand a space appropriate to the epic form and content at hand.