Abeedushear Were They Slaves of Poetry?

Abstract

This research studied and refuted the claim that some pre-Islamic poets used to revise their poetry and polish it for a long time. It has been clearly noted that this claim was at- tributed to Al-Asma'i. Those who came after him expanded the claim to the extent that they narrated that some of those poets used to compose and revise a poem in one year. The modern critics have accepted the claim without questioning it though it was exaggerated and lacked verification. They claimed that those poets were representing a school in poetry which had a distinguished doctrine. The characteristics of this school as they claimed. are manifested in length of times taking poetry as a career not composing poetry thoughtlessly and a tendency to follow the sensory imaging. The research pointed out that the life of the primitive peoples pre-Islamic Arabs are included was based on simplicity and on lack of affectation. Their poetic occasions did not require all that time to revise their poetry. The poetry of the poetry slaves was not different from those who were talented poets by nature. Both kinds of poetry were subject to criticism and defects. Thus taking so much time revising poetry without being perfect does not make sense. The perfection of the poetry slaves goes back to the fact that they were talented poets by nature. Taking so much time in writing poetry does not necessarily mean perfection. The artistic relationship among the slaves of the poetry was not different from the relationship among all other poets. They affected one another in terms of some artistic pictures< meaning and expressions. This impact was merely due to nomadism illiteracy and the unity of the cultural environment. As for the sensory imaging it was a characteristic of the pre- Islamic poetry in general.