Blank Verse (Al-Shi'R Al-Mursal) In Modern Arabic Literature

Abstract

The accepted definition of poetry among most of the classical Arab prosodists is al-kalām al-mawzūn al-muqaffā ‘speech in metre and rhyme’. Unrhymedverse was thus excluded. The simplest rhyme in Arabic verse is generally, a consonant (rawiyy)between two vowels. The only exception to this rule is the rhyme of al-qaṣīda al-maqṣūra, i.e. in a poem which rhymes with alif maqṣūra, where the consonantis not important. It is obvious from the different statements of some of the critics and philosopherswho were interested in the Greek sciences, that the Arabs were aware that the Greeks had blank verse. However, they were all firm in their conviction that rhyme in Arabic poetry is as essential as metre. Fārābī (873–950) in his Kitāb al-shi'r, observed that Homer used blank verse: wa-yabīn min fi'l Awmīrūsh shā'ir al-Yūnāniyyīn annahu lā yaḥlafiẓ bi-tasāvn al-nihāyāt, while the Arabs pay more attention to rhyme than do other nations: Inna li 'I-'Arabmin al-'ināya bi-nihāyāt al-abyāt allatī fi 'l-shi'r ahihar mimmā li-kathīr minal-umam allatī 'arafnā ash'ārahā.