Poetry preservation

He treated Al-Rafa'i's poetry, endured the hardships of his words, then took on criticizing and philosophizing about it, so he was insightful about it, knowledgeable of its disputes, experienced in distinguishing its good from its bad, fascinated by uncovering its secrets and eavesdropping on its hidden aspects, and established standards for poets, judging them by the weight of melody, counting their slips of the letter, mistakes of the mind, and stumbles of the rhymes, and skillfully indicating their points of excellence and their faults with a high explanation, a present argument, an innate wit, sometimes gentle and sometimes forceful. He derives this from extensive knowledge of rhetorical heritage, from wide reading of books on the craft of poetry and its criticism, and from detailed familiarity with the history of Arabic literature in its various stages. He relies on a generous memory, astonishing recall, and sharp intelligence that perceives hidden flaws, guides him to subtle thefts, and reads what hurried eyes do not see. He examines with a keen eye on the spirit of poetry and what it should be, fighting with a sword of talent and innate fiery readiness. No doubt, his heritage in these fields is a delight for the soul, nourishment for the mind, refinement of taste, and protection of poetry from speech impediments, mental flaws, and disorder of opinion. In this book, he compiles a collection of Al-Rafa'i's articles, introductions to his collections, and his poems and lines defending poetry and his poetic meter, philosophizing about its truth, studying some of his poets, and criticizing what did not conform to his method. He gathered these from his published books, which are the least, and from what he left of his heritage, much of which remains folded in the magazines and newspapers of his time, and which is the majority. Among the examples of lost texts that the book revives and publishes for the first time are the article "Arabic Poetry," which is the first of Al-Rafa'i's articles that we have received, published in Al-Manar magazine when he was twenty years old; the article "Comparison between Abu Tammam, Al-Buhturi, and Al-Mutanabbi"; the article "The Prince of Poetry"; articles criticizing "Al-Umariyah" poem by Hafiz, and others. Author: Abdulrahman Qa'id Second edition Pages: 424 Publisher: Afaaq Al-Ma'rifah