Ars Poetica: Writing Poetry About Writing Poetry
For many people, hearing the term ars poetica prompts the automatic association with Horace (c. 19 BC), but did you know that examples of ars poetica (the art of poetry) can be found in a wide variety of literary traditions?
In pre-modern Arabic literature, we can look to two examples of ars poetica written by Abū Nuwās (ca. 140/755–ca. 198/813) and Ibn al-Rūmī (ca. 221/836–ca. 283/896).
Here’s Geert Jan Van Gelder’s translation of a wine song (khamriyyāt) by Abū Nuwās, which can be found in Van Gelder’s 2013 anthology entitled Classical Arabic Literature. The metafictional sense of ars poetica lies in Abū Nuwās’s dismissal of earlier conventions in poetry. For example, this wine song opens with the speaker urging the reader not to cry for a girl, as one would cry at a campsite in pre-Islamic poetry. Instead, the reader is encouraged, in the heady atmosphere of being served wine by a beautiful girl, to live in the present instead of being stuck in the old ways.
Another example we can look at is the poet Ibn al-Rūmī’s ars poetica, an example of which (also translated by Van Gelder) is included below. Here, the preoccupation with ars poetica is even clearer, with Ibn al-Rūmī explicitly talking about a poet who “falls short in this verse” and arguing that people should forgive this shortcoming, after all “he is human!”
If you’re a writer like me and feel pressured to always come up with good stuff, Ibn al-Rūmī gets it. The funny, witty, and also deeply resonant ending of this poem is that “He who dives deep cannot help coming up/with choice pearls and with trash.” In the context that Ibn al-Rūmī was writing in, diving for pearls was code for writing poetry and in this conclusion to the poem, he argues that anyone who dedicates themselves sincerely and deeply to the pursuit of writing poetry is bound to come up with not only the “pearls” of good writing but also the trash along the way (the rough drafts, if you will).
There’s also valuable commentary about the role of the poet, to show people the “bark and dry wood/and of thorns, with fruits in between” (lines 3–4), the hard truths that lie beneath the surface and the satisfaction in revealing. One such revelation that the poet mentions here is the need to embrace imperfection as the natural state of things (check out lines 5–8).
This responsibility to bring truth to light and give others insight into the human condition is no easy undertaking. So it makes sense that under this huge responsibility of bringing truth to light, a poet’s mind becomes exhausted and they come up with trash at times in the difficult pursuit of pearls.
Resources for further exploration:
To learn more about Abū Nuwās, check out Professor Philip F. Kennedy’s book Abu Nuwas A Genius of Poetry.
To learn more about Ibn al-Rūmī as a poet, check out this overview put together by Brill
And to read more works (both in the original Arabic and in the translated English) by these two poets and many more, take a look at Geert Jan van Gelder’s Classical Arabic Literature
Questions we invite you to consider (and share your thoughts in the comment section!)
- Creative prompt: Think of your own code (this could be a metaphor/simile/analogy for example) for what the experience of making art feels like for you. Writing poetry is one form of art, but there are so many other forms of performing arts, visual arts, and interdisciplinary arts. Whatever your passion for making art may be, this is a chance to think figuratively about what that process of creation means to you!
- Creative prompt: Think of your favorite artist (this could be a singer, a sculptor, a poet, a novelist, a video game designer, a violinist, whatever you want!) and free write about how their art impacts you and, based on that, what you think the purpose of art might be in today’s world.
- How do these examples of ars poetica compare to more contemporary kinds of ars poetica you’ve encountered?
- What do you think is the importance of not being stuck in old writing (or other artistic or social) conventions?
- What do you think about the importance of acknowledging the trash that comes with the pearls in any kind of pursuit? What does this kind of attitude imply?
