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Assalamualaikum and welcome back to English Poetry

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at the Islamic University of Gaza. I hope that you

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all and your loved ones are safe and sound after

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yet another Israeli brutal attack on Gaza. Today,

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we continue to work on romantic poetry. We go back

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to Chile. We examined one of the most fascinating

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poems of all times. That's Ozymandias. I'll go

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back to Ozymandias. We'll do something else in

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addition to examining the poem. And I'll start

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with that. When we talk about poets, probably we

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mentioned this early in the course. Why poets? Why

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we need poets? What is it that poets do that

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others do not do? Let me ask you this question

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again. Do we really need poets in our societies,

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in our lives? Are they significant? Can we do

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without them? Can life be the same without poets?

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What is it that poets do to make life different or

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special or better or bad? Can you live Like,

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honestly, can you live a whole month or a whole

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year without reading a poem, listening to a poem,

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listening to a song, reciting a song? What is it

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that we find appealing? Why? Again, here,

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basically, I'm talking about other than the beauty

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of the language The ingenious ways they employ

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literal devices and sounds and the way they word

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their stuff, their originality and everything. I'm

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talking about ideas and thoughts. and

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contributions to civilization, to society. I think

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what we need from poets is that they are having

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control over words. So in their words, they have

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emotions, and they evoke the emotions of other

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people. So they can convey a strong message that

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they want to the other people. And when the

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people's feelings move, then it will turn out to

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be action. So it is important for people to

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improve their country and to improve themselves to

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reap the fruit. So okay if you're talking about

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the ability to convey emotions and feelings in

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words and then the ability to turn these words

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into action. Who does this? Like who does this

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generally in life other than poets? Is it only

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poets who convey, don't teachers sometimes do

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this? Don't parents do this? What is it that is,

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we feel special about poetry? And about poets?

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Like a taxi driver could give you, could express

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his advice. No offense to taxi drivers, I'm just

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giving you an example. Yes.

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Okay, so there is this special thing about deep

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analysis, the profound, you know, digging deeper

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and deeper rather than going for the superficial

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mundane things. I believe that, first of all, as

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Rizwan said, some people have so much emotions but

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they can't find the words. So literature in

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general, whether poetry or prose, gives you those

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words. Another thing is Reading literature

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sometimes helps us overcome our troubles, because

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when we read literature, we feel that there are

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people who think out of the same But again,

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doesn't this apply to other mundane things? If

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you, I don't know, if you are a parent, you have a

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shopping list to do, you have little money, you

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have too many things to buy and you read it. It

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could be a life changing experience because the

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things, is this the same? What's the difference

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between like say a shopping list and a poem? Okay.

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I think okay imagine a father again you know

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struggling you know the economical situation

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around the world and how people are struggling to

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afford to put food on the table and somebody

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realizes that he has to buy so many things at the

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same time he has or she has very little money

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that's going to it's going to be like a poem

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So what's the difference? Why do we have poets?

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What is the main job of a poet? I think that

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poetry makes you feel responsible upon something

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you didn't feel responsible about, like defending

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the land or doing something good or maybe make a

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charity. sometimes you see a poor person and you

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don't think to give him money or her. So poetry

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makes you to think about this. But when I'm

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talking about a father who has responsibility over

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his family, it's normal to feel responsible. So

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you don't need poetry to feel responsible about

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that. So poetry doesn't change our relationships

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between, like if you have a, don't you like your

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mom more when you read one particular poem, you

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listen to one particular song? But does this love

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increase, decrease? Increases. Does poetry

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contribute to increasing, decreasing things? This

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question is in my heart. Please. Please, yes. I

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think poets have the ability to say stuff that we

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feel but can't say. So yes, when you read a poem

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about mothers in general, I can relate to the

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feelings, but I myself, it never occurred to me to

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say them this way. When I read them in a poem, if

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somebody is speaking your mind, you know? And like

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another thing, you said about like what's the

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difference between like a father who lectures you

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and like a poet who is also in a way another

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lecturer in a poem. Well, it's different because

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like I think we choose to listen to the poem and

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like even if it was all dictation, full of stuff

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that… Preaching, yeah. Yeah, teaching, we still

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wouldn't like feel it this way because like we

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choose to listen to it and we like think of it

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more than when someone just comes to us directly

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So you're saying that here sometimes when

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something is dictated to us, you know, when we're

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given orders, commands, we tend to, you know, to

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be reluctant to do, to follow. But if something is

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written in such a way, in such an attractive,

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poetic way that speaks our minds, but at the same

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time does not make us feel that we're just blindly

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following somebody. It's this thing that answers

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some call from inside that makes you feel that

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it's special because you find poetry different.

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Yes, I think even their arguments aren't

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convincing enough that they're degrading in a way

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to appeal to people. Okay, okay. But we do have

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other people who are as convincing as poets. Don't

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we? So, what is the main job of poets? If you are

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a poet, what would you be doing and why? Poets are

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responsible to start things and they call people's

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attention to something or they make people pay

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attention to something that they are part of. For

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example, when I read about such as the incitement

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party or the resistance,

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So you're talking about two things here. Number

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one, the ability of many poets to defamiliarize

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things, to push us to reconsider things, even the

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very mundane, the things that we see every day,

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but we don't pay attention to. And now the poets

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present these things in a way that attracts our

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attention, that makes us pause, think, and

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reconsider our position, our stances. And you

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mentioned another point, which is really very deep

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here, about how poets usually initiate. They start

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things. And this is something that mirrors Freud's

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famous statement, the poets were there before me.

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You know Freud, psychoanalysis? When he was

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looking for examples to clarify, to illustrate his

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ideas about psychoanalysis and everything, he

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found himself almost always quoting literary

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works, works of fiction drama, poetry. And he came

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to the conclusion that poets were there before me,

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every, all my ideas. have been in a way or another

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expressed, mentioned, discussed, elaborated on by

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poets. And that's why he says, poets were there

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before me. Actually, after this course, I feel

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like writing poetry is in the sake of writing

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poetry. This is the thing that it's up to you what

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you want to take from this poem. Actually, when we

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take some poems we like, we have different symbols

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from different perspectives. So I think this is

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the job of the poem.

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It's up to the reader what he wants to take from

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the speech. It depends. Some people believe that.

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I'm writing just for the sake of writing. It's

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like I want, there's something inside, I want to

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get it out there. I don't care what influence it's

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going to have on me or on other people. What I

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care about is, again, how, what I do. I just,

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there's something. I usually use this stupid

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example, but it's like when a mom is due, is

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pregnant, nine months, baby, and the baby has to

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get out. What happens next just has to get out. I

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don't know whether this is in a way similar to

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this situation of poets getting out poems, but not

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many people will agree that we write for the sake

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of writing or even as self-expression. Many people

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read about poets, what they say, talk to poets,

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people who write poetry. That's why I try to

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assign you to write poetry. Okay, you feel the

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need to write because I want you to, but by time I

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hope that you find yourself able to express

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yourself without having to be pushed into this by

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somebody. So again, we go back to the idea that

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Poetry could be self-expression. There's there's a

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movement called art for art's sake Why are you

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doing this? Why are you painting? Why are you

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writing this? I don't care. I just write I think

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it's It's significant for me to write. I don't

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care what influence or impact. But then there will

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be many people who will say, no, poetry is a tool

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of, like you said here, of change, of revolution,

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of resistance, of probably teaching, teaching and

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delighting. More, please.

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This universal thing about them, they touch our

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hearts. Sometimes you read a poem in a different

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foreign language and you relate. you find it

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appealing and sometimes you don't understand

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everything about like the words and you know but

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sometimes the tune helps with songs especially

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like you feel that this is wow we do this

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our feelings That's also true. And that's 

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something that makes poetry special. You could

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still express yourself in a way, in an allegorical

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way, you know, Ahmed Shawqi, Barazas Ta'ala Abu

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Yaman and those very allegorical poets. You can

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escape political persecution.

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And it's just like yesterday I was in a car with

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my dad and there was a song on the radio, it

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literally documents the whole thing. It's just a 

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song that lasts for three minutes. And this is so 

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powerful that we can just learn about a whole

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nation through a poem. That's true. That's true. 

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One more? I also believe that poetry and like all

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literature in general has the ability to make us

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understand ourselves without So sometimes you'd be

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reading about a character and you'd say wow that

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character is horrible and then all of a sudden it 

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strikes you that I do this. So it makes us realize

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how horrible people are. Like is this again

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connected to that idea Nadia raised here, the fact 

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that When people are preachy, we tend to be

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defensive. You know, do, don't, do, don't, do, 

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don't, do, don't. You feel exposed, true. But a

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poet has the ability, a poem has the ability to

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capture your essence and to make you realize that,

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oh my God, this is about me. This is me. I am

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Ozymandias. I am this person or that person. Okay,

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one more question. Do you trust poets? Do you

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think poets are trustworthy? they are they're not

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okay they're not they are are they or are they not

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yes or no yes no oh nice it's okay it's up to you

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so yes or no yes or no yes or no yes or no yes or

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no yes or no yes or no yes or no so most of you

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say no okay okay okay okay Now, why? Why? Please. 

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What if

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you have a close friend who is a poet, would you

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still trust him? What in this person would you be

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trusting? Please. 

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Okay, most of you are saying him for the poet, it

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could be a she. So would you trust him more in

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this case if this is, honestly, if you're reading

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a poem for a female poet, would you take it more 

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seriously? Would you, would it? Please?

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Okay, she's like a close friend of mine. I would, 

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like, I trust my friend, right? 

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Okay. So what is it that you don't trust poets

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about? Briefly, yes please. In brief. So is 

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it good or bad? It's bad, especially for the

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teenagers or the beginners in learning. They will 

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believe what is shown in the poem, yet the poets 

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are giving the answer that is more than they said. 

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Okay, so what do you think? Is that bad? Because

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some people here are saying, if you tell me 

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everything, preach me everything, I'm not going to 

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like it. If you show me, if you do things by 

278
00:18:15,740 --> 00:18:18,540
showing me, by making me think, look for the 

279
00:18:18,540 --> 00:18:22,140
truth, look for the idea, it would make you part 

280
00:18:22,140 --> 00:18:25,500
of the poem. Remember? So yeah, it's true. I like

281
00:18:25,500 --> 00:18:27,600
this again expression. The unsaid is usually more 

282
00:18:27,600 --> 00:18:31,580
than the said. Please. I think maybe some poets

283
00:18:31,580 --> 00:18:35,270
can exaggerate the situation or their feelings. Is 

284
00:18:35,270 --> 00:18:38,510
that good or bad? Don't we all do that all the

285
00:18:38,510 --> 00:18:40,370
time? Don't we exaggerate when we hate somebody, 

286
00:18:40,470 --> 00:18:44,530
when we like somebody, when you... We should be, 

287
00:18:44,550 --> 00:18:48,450
but we're not. Most often we're not. Yes, please.

288
00:18:49,580 --> 00:18:52,260
I think poets sometimes try to immortalize things

289
00:18:52,260 --> 00:18:55,020
and erase other things. I remember once you told 

290
00:18:55,020 --> 00:18:59,460
us that before Zionism came to Palestine, they 

291
00:18:59,460 --> 00:19:03,420
were preparing in prose and poetry. So the poets 

292
00:19:03,420 --> 00:19:07,570
can... portray for the people what he wants. And

293
00:19:07,570 --> 00:19:10,570
Ozymandias is a great example. The reader of this 

294
00:19:10,570 --> 00:19:13,770
poem, for the first time, he will be ready to

295
00:19:13,770 --> 00:19:17,670
understand, and later he will get the information

296
00:19:17,670 --> 00:19:22,010
about bad kings. Okay, so again, you're 

297
00:19:22,010 --> 00:19:26,270
generalizing here. If one poet is using poetry to 

298
00:19:26,270 --> 00:19:30,890
deceive and trick, does that mean we need to 

299
00:19:30,890 --> 00:19:32,530
distrust all poets? 

300
00:19:36,080 --> 00:19:38,120
That's very good. You need to be very careful. You

301
00:19:38,120 --> 00:19:42,280
need to be very cautious about what poets do with 

302
00:19:42,280 --> 00:19:43,580
their poetry. True.

303
00:20:16,830 --> 00:20:20,830
In terms of ideas or in terms of language? In 

304
00:20:20,830 --> 00:20:25,110
terms of how idealized they are

305
00:20:27,370 --> 00:20:31,750
Okay, so does this mean we tend to like realistic 

306
00:20:31,750 --> 00:20:36,430
poetry more, to find ourselves, or at least trust, 

307
00:20:36,510 --> 00:20:39,010
do we trust more realistic poets more? 

308
00:20:42,500 --> 00:20:44,340
Okay, why wouldn't you trust, like generally 

309
00:20:44,340 --> 00:20:47,520
speaking, why wouldn't you trust a poet? I think

310
00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:51,100
not all poets must be taken for granted because 

311
00:20:51,100 --> 00:20:55,400
sometimes they only write poetry for the sake of

312
00:20:55,400 --> 00:20:58,340
getting some support in a way or another, whether 

313
00:20:58,340 --> 00:21:03,400
financial support or social. Be careful many poets

314
00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:06,620
don't make much money these days Only if you if 

315
00:21:06,620 --> 00:21:09,260
you are successful novel writer novelist you could 

316
00:21:09,260 --> 00:21:12,500
do that, but short story writers Poets they don't 

317
00:21:12,500 --> 00:21:17,860
make much money Okay

318
00:21:17,860 --> 00:21:22,480
Okay,

319
00:21:22,600 --> 00:21:25,340
so sometimes poets not all poets are good people

320
00:21:25,340 --> 00:21:29,400
they do bad stuff they could do would you like a

321
00:21:30,060 --> 00:21:34,420
poetry written by somebody who you don't like if

322
00:21:34,420 --> 00:21:39,980
the man the man or the woman is bad like but they

323
00:21:39,980 --> 00:21:42,600
write good poetry so to speak would you still read 

324
00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:47,080
their poetry okay

325
00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:48,520
please

326
00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:55,060
The man himself. So you're trying to detach. 

327
00:21:55,200 --> 00:21:57,300
There's something that this of the author, there's

328
00:21:57,300 --> 00:22:01,260
this theory that once poets, once authors, writers 

329
00:22:01,260 --> 00:22:06,160
write stuff, it belongs to us, to the readers. And

330
00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:10,240
it also means that the writing is the sum of

331
00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:13,980
everything around them. It's not only them,

332
00:22:14,060 --> 00:22:16,960
because you will always be quoting inspired by

333
00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:21,640
other writers and other authors. These are very

334
00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:25,040
excellent ideas you have. Think about them and see

335
00:22:25,040 --> 00:22:28,400
how you could develop these ideas now.

336
00:22:30,980 --> 00:22:37,300
As Arabs, we have always appreciated pottery. 

337
00:22:37,460 --> 00:22:40,520
Pottery has been part and parcel of our life, of 

338
00:22:40,520 --> 00:22:43,930
our heritage. It's probably the most significant 

339
00:22:43,930 --> 00:22:47,690
thing we had from the Arabs. In addition, you 

340
00:22:47,690 --> 00:22:50,470
know, like ancient Arabs were all like 1,000, 2

341
00:22:50,470 --> 00:22:53,410
,000 years ago in addition to later on to Islam 

342
00:22:53,410 --> 00:22:58,540
and the Quran and the Sunnah, right? And the only 

343
00:22:58,540 --> 00:23:01,300
miracle in Islam for Prophet Muhammad was the 

344
00:23:01,300 --> 00:23:04,280
Quran, because Arabs were excellent poets with

345
00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:06,660
rhetoric, with language, with words. They were the

346
00:23:06,660 --> 00:23:10,360
best of the best, how they used language and how 

347
00:23:10,360 --> 00:23:12,440
they expressed themselves. Now, in the Quran,

348
00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:16,460
there's a whole surah, a whole chapter named after 

349
00:23:16,460 --> 00:23:20,080
the poets as shu'ara. And again, indicating how

350
00:23:20,080 --> 00:23:24,790
significant these people are. They're not

351
00:23:24,790 --> 00:23:29,150
mentioned like we expect them to be mentioned 

352
00:23:29,150 --> 00:23:38,830
because the verse says, Now this 

353
00:23:38,830 --> 00:23:41,910
is significant, meaning, translate the gist that

354
00:23:41,910 --> 00:23:49,330
poets are only followed by people who don't follow 

355
00:23:49,330 --> 00:23:53,190
the truth because they roam, literal translation,

356
00:23:53,350 --> 00:23:56,010
they roam in every valley. They fluctuate, they

357
00:23:56,010 --> 00:23:58,870
change. One time they're here and the other day 

358
00:23:58,870 --> 00:24:02,090
they're doing the opposite. Sometime they would be

359
00:24:02,090 --> 00:24:04,230
praising this man and then next week, next month 

360
00:24:04,230 --> 00:24:07,170
they would be attacking him or criticizing him. 

361
00:24:07,730 --> 00:24:13,150
And this is significant because during the time of 

362
00:24:13,150 --> 00:24:15,710
Prophet Muhammad there was Hassan Ibn Thabit, the 

363
00:24:15,710 --> 00:24:20,380
famous poet, Prophet Muhammad kind of like brought 

364
00:24:20,380 --> 00:24:22,580
him very close to him. He made him his own 

365
00:24:22,580 --> 00:24:25,680
personal poet. And he even ordered him to write,

366
00:24:25,820 --> 00:24:28,900
gave him the order to write poetry against the 

367
00:24:28,900 --> 00:24:33,060
people attacking, hating the Prophet Muhammad

368
00:24:33,060 --> 00:24:36,920
peace be upon him at that time. And he even, you 

369
00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:42,420
know, he made him sit on a pulpit, the minbar, you 

370
00:24:42,420 --> 00:24:46,020
know, And nobody else, nobody else of the 

371
00:24:46,020 --> 00:24:49,420
Prophet's companions had this place because he was

372
00:24:49,420 --> 00:24:52,360
a poet. And now the interesting thing is that

373
00:24:52,360 --> 00:24:54,660
Hassan was not a warrior. He was not a fighter. We

374
00:24:54,660 --> 00:24:56,880
talk about a time when fighting was probably one

375
00:24:56,880 --> 00:25:00,120
of the most significant things, right? But writing

376
00:25:00,120 --> 00:25:04,160
poetry perhaps was even more significant. So for

377
00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:08,400
this, because poets are significant, Prophet 

378
00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:10,960
Muhammad brought this man, Hassan Ibn Thabit, 

379
00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:13,960
closer to him, probably closer than any of the 

380
00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:17,880
other companions.

381
00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:20,140
And he gave him, he always asked him to write

382
00:25:20,140 --> 00:25:24,820
poetry, to attack, to criticize the people of

383
00:25:24,820 --> 00:25:32,800
Quraysh. And for this, this is the verse. However, 

384
00:25:34,060 --> 00:25:36,220
there is always an exception, so there is no 

385
00:25:36,220 --> 00:25:40,690
general blanket condemnation of poets. And look at

386
00:25:40,690 --> 00:25:43,350
what sort of poets that are praised here, illa 

387
00:25:43,350 --> 00:25:46,250
alladhina aman wa amali, except, so all poets are 

388
00:25:46,250 --> 00:25:50,410
bad, except those who believe and do. And some of 

389
00:25:50,410 --> 00:25:52,350
you mentioned this in passing, that poets say 

390
00:25:52,350 --> 00:25:54,770
stuff, but they don't do it. They are people of

391
00:25:54,770 --> 00:25:57,810
words rather than people of action. So I think

392
00:25:57,810 --> 00:26:01,110
this is one important thing that we look for in 

393
00:26:01,110 --> 00:26:03,710
poets. We want poets who are probably realistic, 

394
00:26:03,830 --> 00:26:06,090
like you said, connected to life, who push us to

395
00:26:06,090 --> 00:26:09,150
do new things, to break new ground, who speak our

396
00:26:09,150 --> 00:26:13,050
minds, who lead by example, but also poets who

397
00:26:13,050 --> 00:26:16,690
themselves do, they practice what they preach.

398
00:26:17,290 --> 00:26:22,010
They practice what they preach. Look at this, how

399
00:26:22,010 --> 00:26:26,050
poetry can be an act of resistance.

400
00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:31,080
I like this translation. It's like literal. Don't

401
00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:33,560
you see that in every valley there? I think in 

402
00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:34,940
Arabic, in the Quran, this is one of the most

403
00:26:34,940 --> 00:26:35,640
beautiful images.

404
00:26:38,500 --> 00:26:43,420
When somebody goes into

405
00:26:43,420 --> 00:26:47,000
a place aimlessly, just walks around wandering

406
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:50,320
aimlessly. This is what means like they could be

407
00:26:50,320 --> 00:26:52,880
going there. They just can be writing poetry, like 

408
00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:57,230
you said, for no reason or for no purpose. Okay,

409
00:26:57,550 --> 00:27:00,770
so despite the fact that Hassan Ibn Thabit did not

410
00:27:00,770 --> 00:27:05,550
fight well, he wasn't a warrior, he was made

411
00:27:05,550 --> 00:27:07,390
special by Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. He

412
00:27:07,390 --> 00:27:12,210
even prayed saying that the angel Gabriel will 

41

445
00:29:22,580 --> 00:29:25,440
clapped and said, bala, bala, bala, I like this.

446
00:29:26,220 --> 00:29:30,200
Now, many of us could say that this is a mistake.

447
00:29:31,270 --> 00:29:33,230
Like Jareer committed a mistake, and this is true.

448
00:29:33,610 --> 00:29:35,330
It could be that he committed a mistake, but there

449
00:29:35,330 --> 00:29:36,970
is another interpretation. It could be deliberate.

450
00:29:37,530 --> 00:29:41,780
This man is a genius. He's a poet. In the sense

451
00:29:41,780 --> 00:29:45,060
that he could have done this in order to change

452
00:29:45,060 --> 00:29:50,800
things. I like poetry that subverts the authority

453
00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:53,600
of people, like people in authority, patriarchy

454
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:56,880
and everything. Poetry that attacks these symbols

455
00:29:56,880 --> 00:30:01,440
of power, of authority, is the poetry that appeals

456
00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:04,840
to me most. And I read this here. I think Jarir,

457
00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:07,440
by doing this, is trying to do two things. Number

458
00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:11,210
one, to shake the image of the caliph. But also

459
00:30:11,210 --> 00:30:13,830
number two, to tell other poets and people that

460
00:30:13,830 --> 00:30:15,710
there are many ways to start a poem. You don't

461
00:30:15,710 --> 00:30:21,690
have to start standing on the ruins and being all

462
00:30:21,690 --> 00:30:24,890
sweet and everything. A poem can begin like this

463
00:30:24,890 --> 00:30:28,290
in a tough and rough way. And talking about

464
00:30:28,290 --> 00:30:31,770
openings, we always go to Abu Nawaz, one of my

465
00:30:31,770 --> 00:30:35,190
favorite poets. Abu Nawaz wasn't an Arab, he was a

466
00:30:35,190 --> 00:30:39,300
Persian. And sadly for this, some critics didn't

467
00:30:39,300 --> 00:30:43,660
like him just for the fact that he was Persian. He

468
00:30:43,660 --> 00:30:47,520
was alcoholic and again people hated him for that.

469
00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:49,800
But remember we don't talk about the person

470
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:52,760
himself here, we talk about the poet, the poetry.

471
00:30:53,770 --> 00:30:57,150
So this man, again, how he was changing, if not

472
00:30:57,150 --> 00:31:01,070
ideas and society and customs, changing the way

473
00:31:01,070 --> 00:31:04,970
poets would be writing. He hated very much what

474
00:31:04,970 --> 00:31:08,030
for hundreds and hundreds of years Arab poets

475
00:31:08,030 --> 00:31:11,090
would open the poems against standing on the ruins

476
00:31:11,090 --> 00:31:17,330
and remains of the beloved tribe or something. And

477
00:31:17,330 --> 00:31:19,870
I think that must have been boring for some

478
00:31:19,870 --> 00:31:24,470
people, for many people. Imagine you reading or

479
00:31:24,470 --> 00:31:27,010
listening to a poem, like a hundred poems and a

480
00:31:27,010 --> 00:31:31,730
thousand poems, all opening, standing over the

481
00:31:31,730 --> 00:31:34,270
ruins of something. So change was significant.

482
00:31:34,430 --> 00:31:37,470
Again, poets would always start with this. So he

483
00:31:37,470 --> 00:31:40,470
said, قُلّي مَن مَرَّ عَلَى رَسْمٍ دَرَسْ وَاقِفًا

484
00:31:40,470 --> 00:31:44,730
till those people who stand over the ruins of

485
00:31:44,730 --> 00:31:49,630
their... Why don't you sit down? Have a seat. Sit

486
00:31:49,630 --> 00:31:55,190
down. رجليك تعبوك تريح مادره لو كان جلس, and I

487
00:31:55,190 --> 00:31:58,770
showed you some of the memes, yeah, I showed you

488
00:31:58,770 --> 00:32:02,950
again this is another poem, another line, مادره لو 

489
00:32:02,950 --> 00:32:05,990
كان جلس, this is that, this is from Abu Nawaz, all of

490
00:32:05,990 --> 00:32:10,430
it فما الوقوف على الأطلال من شأنه, I am not a

491
00:32:10,430 --> 00:32:13,250
person who would stand over, I don't do this, I

492
00:32:13,250 --> 00:32:16,590
don't stand over ruins, it's not something I do, I

493
00:32:16,590 --> 00:32:21,660
like doing, And لتلك أبكي و لا أبكي لمنزلتي, I don't

494
00:32:21,660 --> 00:32:25,380
cry or weep over these things كانت تحل بها هند و

495
00:32:25,380 --> 00:32:28,420
أسموة, I weep for something that happened, for an

496
00:32:28,420 --> 00:32:33,090
experience, I don't weep over. And this, listen, This

497
00:32:33,090 --> 00:32:35,870
could be because again Abu Nawaz wanted to change

498
00:32:35,870 --> 00:32:38,810
the way, but I don't know. Is it because also he

499
00:32:38,810 --> 00:32:43,470
doesn't have roots in wherever he was in Iraq or

500
00:32:43,470 --> 00:32:46,890
here and there? It's like place doesn't mean much

501
00:32:46,890 --> 00:32:49,430
to him because this is not where he is from

502
00:32:49,430 --> 00:32:51,030
originally. He was born somewhere else. I don't

503
00:32:51,030 --> 00:32:54,330
know. It could be both. And I find this very

504
00:32:54,330 --> 00:33:00,270
striking. This is really extreme.

505
00:33:04,770 --> 00:33:07,310
That's really extreme. This is supplication. May

506
00:33:07,310 --> 00:33:12,130
God not have mercy on any eye that cries over the

507
00:33:12,130 --> 00:33:16,410
ruins or the remains. That's very extreme. I did

508
00:33:16,410 --> 00:33:19,930
my memes myself. I try sometimes. I love this. I

509
00:33:19,930 --> 00:33:22,450
never understood this until somebody memed this

510
00:33:22,450 --> 00:33:25,660
woman. So this woman was tasting something. You

511
00:33:25,660 --> 00:33:27,500
know sometimes you eat something that you hate

512
00:33:27,500 --> 00:33:30,380
very much, and just before you spit it out, you

513
00:33:30,380 --> 00:33:33,280
think, wait a minute, this is really different.

514
00:33:34,320 --> 00:33:38,060
You know, I have tasted this, I'm very

515
00:33:38,060 --> 00:33:40,460
adventurous, wherever I travel, I like to try the

516
00:33:40,460 --> 00:33:42,180
food. So sometimes it's like, oh my God, I want to

517
00:33:42,180 --> 00:33:45,100
spit it out. But then you just give it one moment,

518
00:33:45,220 --> 00:33:47,540
and it's like, wow, this is different, special.

519
00:33:48,620 --> 00:33:52,000
So, قُلّي مَن مَرَ عَلَى رَسْمٍ دَرَسْ وَاقِفًا،

520
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:57,900
مَا دَرَ لَوْ جَلَسْ, O'Dis Famous, like how most

521
00:33:57,900 --> 00:34:02,100
Arab poets would be قفة نبكي من ذكرى حبيبى ومنزلي

522
00:34:02,100 --> 00:34:06,740
بسقط اللوى بين دخولى فحوملى etc But then مادرة لو 

523
00:34:06,740 --> 00:34:11,990
كان جلس, sit down, you don't have to stand, Now

524
00:34:11,990 --> 00:34:14,250
look at Al Mutanabbi. We know Al Mutanabbi is

525
00:34:14,250 --> 00:34:17,630
perhaps, some argue that he's the greatest poet of

526
00:34:17,630 --> 00:34:21,090
all times, even surpassing Shakespeare and Dante

527
00:34:21,090 --> 00:34:23,690
and those great poets. It's still an opinion that

528
00:34:23,690 --> 00:34:27,210
some people have. He's no doubt the greatest Arab

529
00:34:27,210 --> 00:34:29,270
poet of all time.

530
00:34:31,420 --> 00:34:34,620
Was a special, was a poet, I'm not sure if you

531
00:34:34,620 --> 00:34:37,320
read any, if you know, like, you will be amazed

532
00:34:37,320 --> 00:34:41,780
how many of the wisdoms you know were said by Al

533
00:34:41,780 --> 00:34:45,140
-Mutanabbi. Masayabu qawmin anda qawmin fawa'id.

534
00:34:45,160 --> 00:34:48,800
It's something from Al-Mutanabbi. One man's poison

535
00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:52,020
is another man's meat. Ma li jurhin bimayitin

536
00:34:52,020 --> 00:34:55,480
ilam. I did one dozen tears. You know, most of the

537
00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:58,960
idioms, the proverbs, the expressions we know, I

538
00:34:58,960 --> 00:35:01,220
don't say most, like some of them come originally

539
00:35:01,220 --> 00:35:05,280
from Al-Mutanabi. Sha'ar Al-Hikma, I think he was

540
00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:10,580
described, the poet of wisdom, anyway. I don't

541
00:35:10,580 --> 00:35:10,860
care.

542
00:35:15,560 --> 00:35:18,080
The thing is that you need to read Al-Mutanabi,

543
00:35:18,140 --> 00:35:21,560
you have to, really. When he, he was, this man was

544
00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:24,840
looking to be, you know, appointed, you know, some

545
00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:28,740
Emir here or there. And he was, you know, keeping

546
00:35:28,740 --> 00:35:31,000
with Seif Eddaoula, and every time, like, Seif

547
00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:33,060
Eddaoula would be rejecting him, like, okay, stay

548
00:35:33,060 --> 00:35:36,000
around, write poetry for me, and that's it. So he

549
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:37,900
left him, and he went to Egypt, Kafour El Ekhshidi.

550
00:35:38,820 --> 00:35:41,040
Again, hoping that Kafour El Ekhshidi would be

551
00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:45,320
giving him what? You know, some place to rule. And

552
00:35:45,320 --> 00:35:47,560
when he went to Egypt, he was heading to Egypt, he

553
00:35:47,560 --> 00:35:50,560
wrote one of the most beautiful poems of all time.

554
00:35:51,640 --> 00:35:54,340
Again, in anticipating, preparing for the meeting

555
00:35:54,340 --> 00:35:58,610
with Kafour El Ekhshidi. He stayed there in vain.

556
00:35:58,990 --> 00:36:02,490
Kafuri Khashidi was not also willing to give him

557
00:36:02,490 --> 00:36:05,910
some place to rule or something. And he left Egypt

558
00:36:05,910 --> 00:36:08,630
heading back to Syria, and he wrote again one of

559
00:36:08,630 --> 00:36:11,850
the most fascinating poems of all time. So it's

560
00:36:11,850 --> 00:36:15,290
the same thing. You know, I'm praising this man

561
00:36:15,290 --> 00:36:16,850
and attacking him. It's not just attacking him.

562
00:36:17,230 --> 00:36:20,630
The famous poem says, I will return at any cost. I

563
00:36:20,630 --> 00:36:23,230
will return to what has been done to you to renew

564
00:36:23,230 --> 00:36:25,210
it. As for his beloved ones in the desert without

565
00:36:25,210 --> 00:36:36,060
them, He says one

566
00:36:36,060 --> 00:36:40,270
of those lines that, Very memorable. He talks about

567
00:36:40,270 --> 00:36:41,510
the people there in Egypt.

568
00:36:45,090 --> 00:36:52,510
Those people stink that even when the angel of

569
00:36:52,510 --> 00:36:55,170
death takes their souls, it brings, you know, a

570
00:36:55,170 --> 00:36:57,170
stick, so it doesn't touch them. It just takes

571
00:36:57,170 --> 00:37:00,970
their souls with with a stick, that's extreme. So

572
00:37:00,970 --> 00:37:03,630
when he was running away from Egypt, leaving Egypt

573
00:37:03,630 --> 00:37:08,490
behind, some people whose mother, Al-Mutanabbi,

574
00:37:08,950 --> 00:37:13,470
satirized, were coming after him, and he wanted to

575
00:37:13,470 --> 00:37:17,740
run away, until one of his followers, One of his

576
00:37:17,740 --> 00:37:26,700
servants said, Sir, wasn't it you who said, Didn't

577
00:37:26,700 --> 00:37:30,800
you say that, I don't know, the horse, the steed,

578
00:37:30,920 --> 00:37:35,520
the knight, the desert know me, the sword, the

579
00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:40,380
spear, the paper and pen as well? Like, didn't you

580
00:37:40,380 --> 00:37:43,020
say this? Didn't you praise yourself as the

581
00:37:43,020 --> 00:37:44,100
greatest of fighters?

582
00:37:52,860 --> 00:37:55,860
But he wasn't a fighter. He was a fighter in his

583
00:37:55,860 --> 00:37:58,280
own words. But because he wanted to keep his word,

584
00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:00,520
he wanted to tell people that poets are not liars,

585
00:38:00,620 --> 00:38:03,980
that poets are to be trusted. He stood and chose

586
00:38:03,980 --> 00:38:06,720
to fight rather than run away. And he knew he's

587
00:38:06,720 --> 00:38:09,520
going to be killed. And that's why he said to the

588
00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:14,380
man, You killed me. You reminded me of my own

589
00:38:14,380 --> 00:38:17,220
poetry. You made me stop and fight. I'm not a

590
00:38:17,220 --> 00:38:19,460
fighter. But because I said something, I have to

591
00:38:19,460 --> 00:38:23,590
keep my word. That's very beautiful. If you don't

592
00:38:23,590 --> 00:38:25,610
like this about the Mutanabbi, I don't know what

593
00:38:25,610 --> 00:38:29,470
else you're going to like about him. I don't know.

594
00:38:29,590 --> 00:38:35,450
Poets say stuff. Now, we move to Mahmoud Samil

595
00:38:35,450 --> 00:38:40,390
Baroudi, one of the poets of like, I don't know

596
00:38:40,390 --> 00:38:43,310
when he lived exactly, but like 150 years ago or

597
00:38:43,310 --> 00:38:47,620
so. Arab poetry was in really steep decline until

598
00:38:47,620 --> 00:38:52,940
Mahmoud Samuel Baroudi came with the Renaissance

599
00:38:52,940 --> 00:38:56,340
or whatever, the modern Renaissance movement of

600
00:38:56,340 --> 00:38:59,620
Arabic poetry, the classical Arabic poetry. This

601
00:38:59,620 --> 00:39:01,980
man was a fighter, and he was also a poet. That's

602
00:39:01,980 --> 00:39:04,900
why he was described as the lord of the sword and

603
00:39:04,900 --> 00:39:08,840
the pen. Rabb al-saif wal-qalam. Again, you see

604
00:39:08,840 --> 00:39:10,620
what I'm doing here. It's trying to connect how

605
00:39:10,620 --> 00:39:17,600
words and deeds are usually there with poets. And

606
00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:20,040
it's probably these poets that we like more,

607
00:39:20,200 --> 00:39:22,820
because they practice what they preach rather than

608
00:39:22,820 --> 00:39:27,520
just... And we go to another example from

609
00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:30,560
Palestinian culture and poetry, Abd al-Rahim

610
00:39:30,560 --> 00:39:33,320
Mahmoud. Do you know Abd al-Rahim Mahmoud? Again,

611
00:39:33,360 --> 00:39:35,320
he was a great fighter. He was a Palestinian

612
00:39:35,320 --> 00:39:40,250
feday, commando, and he was also a great poet. In

613
00:39:40,250 --> 00:39:44,090
his poem, famous poem, سأحمل روحي على راحتي, We all

614
00:39:44,090 --> 00:39:48,530
know this by heart, و ألقي بها في مهاورة فإما حياته

615
00:39:48,530 --> 00:39:52,590
تسر الصديق و إما ماته يغيظ العدى, I'll carry my

616
00:39:52,590 --> 00:39:56,350
soul on the palm of my hand and throw it to the

617
00:39:56,350 --> 00:40:00,770
abyss of death, It's either a life that pleases a

618
00:40:00,770 --> 00:40:04,830
friend, or friends, or death that teases and spites

619
00:40:04,830 --> 00:40:08,830
the enemy, or something, Now what makes this special

620
00:40:08,830 --> 00:40:12,050
is that Mahmoud Darwish died defending his land,

621
00:40:12,490 --> 00:40:16,430
died fighting the Zionist occupation of Palestine.

622
00:40:16,630 --> 00:40:19,830
He died a fighter. He said something. He preached

623
00:40:19,830 --> 00:40:23,890
us something. Probably these words come to life.

624
00:40:24,030 --> 00:40:27,050
He comes to life every time we read this. He

625
00:40:27,050 --> 00:40:30,010
showed us what to do, what to say, and how to do

626
00:40:30,010 --> 00:40:33,240
it. And I'm not sure what other Palestinian poets

627
00:40:33,240 --> 00:40:35,480
you like, but for many Mahmoud Darwish usually

628
00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:41,500
comes on

667
00:43:01,030 --> 00:43:04,070
say the very opposite of something. So the fact

668
00:43:04,070 --> 00:43:07,490
that he was there early in the days calling for

669
00:43:07,490 --> 00:43:12,530
people to come out, to rise, makes him also a

670
00:43:12,530 --> 00:43:18,920
special poet. Now, Even if you don't do, if you

671
00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:21,400
don't practice what you preach, sometimes, again,

672
00:43:21,480 --> 00:43:23,700
your words are enough. You don't have to be a

673
00:43:23,700 --> 00:43:27,740
poet. Remember we said something about children,

674
00:43:28,180 --> 00:43:30,720
that words were saying that child is the father of

675
00:43:30,720 --> 00:43:33,080
man and something like this. Children don't have

676
00:43:33,080 --> 00:43:37,020
to do anything to influence us, to change us,

677
00:43:37,040 --> 00:43:41,000
right? They just have to be there with their crazy

678
00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:41,400
stuff.

679
00:43:44,360 --> 00:43:47,020
These are two poets, Palestinian poets. They're

680
00:43:47,020 --> 00:43:49,280
not fighters. They didn't fight. They didn't carry

681
00:43:49,280 --> 00:43:52,660
guns or stones or whatever. They just wrote

682
00:43:52,660 --> 00:43:56,920
poetry. And still for that, the Israeli occupation

683
00:43:56,920 --> 00:44:00,500
looked at them in the way Israeli occupation looks

684
00:44:00,500 --> 00:44:05,440
at Palestinians. Moshi Dayan is reported to have

685
00:44:05,440 --> 00:44:08,760
said about Fadwa Tokan, he's a war criminal, he

686
00:44:08,760 --> 00:44:13,200
likened her reading one of her poems to facing 20

687
00:44:13,200 --> 00:44:17,200
enemy commanders, fighters. So one poem by Fadwa

688
00:44:17,200 --> 00:44:19,940
Tokan was viewed by this Israeli war criminal as

689
00:44:19,940 --> 00:44:25,640
20 fighters. So words, so is it again, I find it

690
00:44:25,640 --> 00:44:27,740
difficult sometimes to separate words from deeds,

691
00:44:27,820 --> 00:44:32,230
what you do, because what you say can easily

692
00:44:32,230 --> 00:44:35,510
influence and incite others. You use the term

693
00:44:35,510 --> 00:44:38,990
incite and prompt others to resist. The same thing

694
00:44:38,990 --> 00:44:42,610
happened to Darien Tatour like just three, four

695
00:44:42,610 --> 00:44:45,130
years ago. Darien Tatour is a Palestinian poet who

696
00:44:45,130 --> 00:44:49,450
was sent to prison by Israel for writing poetry.

697
00:44:49,950 --> 00:44:54,490
Again, under the fake accusation of incitement.

698
00:44:55,210 --> 00:44:58,450
And she spent a lot of time in prison, and she

699
00:44:58,450 --> 00:45:03,070
remained for a long time under house arrest. If

700
00:45:03,070 --> 00:45:05,970
this doesn't show us how significant poetry is, I

701
00:45:05,970 --> 00:45:08,390
don't know what does.

702
00:45:09,690 --> 00:45:13,250
Now going back to our friends here, Wordsworth and

703
00:45:13,250 --> 00:45:17,900
Shelley. Many of you like Shelley, listen you could

704
00:45:17,900 --> 00:45:21,240
like something in the poet and not like something

705
00:45:21,240 --> 00:45:23,540
else. Again I don't talk about the poet as the

706
00:45:23,540 --> 00:45:25,640
man, I talk about what they say, his poetry. You

707
00:45:25,640 --> 00:45:28,020
could like this poem but not that poem and that's

708
00:45:28,020 --> 00:45:33,250
okay. Now Wordsworth is accused by many people as

709
00:45:33,250 --> 00:45:36,950
the poet, an escapist poet. Some people would make

710
00:45:36,950 --> 00:45:39,250
fun of him and accuse him of being a tree hugger,

711
00:45:39,430 --> 00:45:41,930
you know, he would just be leaving the sins and

712
00:45:41,930 --> 00:45:44,590
the corruptions of the city and you know all the

713
00:45:44,590 --> 00:45:48,830
social and political decay behind and just close

714
00:45:48,830 --> 00:45:51,990
your eyes. Imagine in the past when you were a

715
00:45:51,990 --> 00:45:55,610
child and life was good. Life was innocent. Life

716
00:45:55,610 --> 00:45:58,810
was beautiful. Or leave everything behind and go

717
00:45:58,810 --> 00:46:02,830
to nature, to the bosom of nature and just do it.

718
00:46:04,510 --> 00:46:06,990
I find this unfair sometimes.

719
00:46:10,350 --> 00:46:12,390
Tree-hugger is too much, I shouldn't be using

720
00:46:12,390 --> 00:46:15,690
this, but I could say that he's an escapist. Some

721
00:46:15,690 --> 00:46:18,630
radicals might even accuse him of being complicit,

722
00:46:19,190 --> 00:46:21,030
because if you're silent, you know the sentence,

723
00:46:21,170 --> 00:46:24,050
the statement, if you're silent in times of

724
00:46:24,050 --> 00:46:28,040
injustice, you're complicit. Especially if you're

725
00:46:28,040 --> 00:46:29,840
special, if you're a poet, you should be speaking

726
00:46:29,840 --> 00:46:35,160
out loud, loud and clear against injustices, like

727
00:46:35,160 --> 00:46:37,180
we've seen with William Blake. But again, that's

728
00:46:37,180 --> 00:46:41,400
the difference. William Blake was a Londoner. Now,

729
00:46:41,500 --> 00:46:44,580
for many people, the fact that William Wordsworth

730
00:46:44,580 --> 00:46:48,360
was calling for some kind of revolution in poetry

731
00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:52,260
and words and language is enough. Because for

732
00:46:52,260 --> 00:46:55,700
them, without Wordsworth, we wouldn't have had

733
00:46:55,700 --> 00:46:59,860
Shelley. He paved the way, he started it. It was

734
00:46:59,860 --> 00:47:02,040
Wordsworth, it was Coleridge who started this

735
00:47:02,040 --> 00:47:06,400
whole great movement of radical change in terms of

736
00:47:06,400 --> 00:47:09,820
language and poetry and also in terms of ideas and

737
00:47:09,820 --> 00:47:12,680
probably political ideas. And by the way, during

738
00:47:12,680 --> 00:47:16,010
his lifetime, there were many files that were

739
00:47:16,010 --> 00:47:18,210
declassified later on. You know, we're talking

740
00:47:18,210 --> 00:47:20,710
about the times and age of revolutions, the

741
00:47:20,710 --> 00:47:22,170
American Revolution, the Industrial Revolution,

742
00:47:22,210 --> 00:47:24,350
but also the French Revolution. And England was

743
00:47:24,350 --> 00:47:27,610
like literally shaking because they were afraid

744
00:47:27,610 --> 00:47:30,430
another revolution is going to take care in

745
00:47:30,430 --> 00:47:34,610
England, to take place in England. So the British

746
00:47:34,610 --> 00:47:37,750
intelligence was spying on both Wordsworth and

747
00:47:37,750 --> 00:47:42,370
Coleridge. And they were like, you can look up the

748
00:47:42,370 --> 00:47:44,710
information and the reports those spies were

749
00:47:44,710 --> 00:47:47,450
writing about Coleridge. And I don't know, I don't

750
00:47:47,450 --> 00:47:49,990
know how they reacted when they were like, oh my

751
00:47:49,990 --> 00:47:52,290
God, those people keep going to Lake District and

752
00:47:52,290 --> 00:47:54,110
staying in this cottage. I'm not sure what they're

753
00:47:54,110 --> 00:47:57,830
planning, what they're going to do. So they would

754
00:47:57,830 --> 00:48:01,350
be sending somebody to listen and, I don't know,

755
00:48:01,650 --> 00:48:04,310
Wordsworth would be saying, I wandered lonely as a

756
00:48:04,310 --> 00:48:07,530
cloud. And if he, was he this, was this man or the

757
00:48:07,530 --> 00:48:10,690
intelligence, like, were they trying to decipher

758
00:48:10,690 --> 00:48:14,790
this, to, you know, to decode it? Is this a symbol

759
00:48:14,790 --> 00:48:17,210
of something? I wandered lonely as what? Is this,

760
00:48:17,770 --> 00:48:21,070
does this, I don't know. But this is something

761
00:48:21,070 --> 00:48:24,750
else. So you could criticize Wordsworth for not

762
00:48:24,750 --> 00:48:29,750
being at least as radical as we want a poet to be,

763
00:48:30,510 --> 00:48:33,130
but don't forget what he did in itself was a

764
00:48:33,130 --> 00:48:36,010
revolution, a revolution that changed people's

765
00:48:36,010 --> 00:48:38,930
mentalities and people's sensibilities and

766
00:48:38,930 --> 00:48:40,810
people's way of viewing the world, of writing

767
00:48:40,810 --> 00:48:44,850
about the world. But Shelley is a different man.

768
00:48:45,550 --> 00:48:49,470
Shelley was openly, and by the way, what we like

769
00:48:49,470 --> 00:48:51,110
about Shelley is something that many people don't

770
00:48:51,110 --> 00:48:53,690
like about Shelley. They say he was clear, he was

771
00:48:53,690 --> 00:48:57,570
open. So he was like a political preacher saying

772
00:48:57,570 --> 00:49:02,710
to us, okay rise, go start up a revolution. I don't

773
00:49:02,710 --> 00:49:05,890
think this is a very simplistic view of Shelley. But

774
00:49:05,890 --> 00:49:09,230
Shelley, in many of his poems, was openly calling

775
00:49:09,230 --> 00:49:12,390
for a revolution, to rise up. And I'm quoting

776
00:49:12,390 --> 00:49:15,970
something here just for the sake of... In the

777
00:49:15,970 --> 00:49:18,670
films of poetry, and I say by Shelley, he says,

778
00:49:18,930 --> 00:49:20,770
poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the

779
00:49:20,770 --> 00:49:23,110
world. They are the law, you know, members of the

780
00:49:23,110 --> 00:49:26,510
parliament, the lawmakers, that's legislators. The

781
00:49:26,510 --> 00:49:29,470
legislative council here, Palestinian Legislative

782
00:49:29,470 --> 00:49:33,220
Council. So poets, They are the leaders, they are

783
00:49:33,220 --> 00:49:35,420
the lawmakers of the society, but they are

784
00:49:35,420 --> 00:49:38,760
unofficial. And also it was him who criticized,

785
00:49:39,040 --> 00:49:40,860
harshly criticized the society, the British

786
00:49:40,860 --> 00:49:43,420
society as being a society where the rich get

787
00:49:43,420 --> 00:49:48,970
richer and the poor get poorer. And all to the

788
00:49:48,970 --> 00:49:53,570
west wind. I'm just taking extracts here. Look at

789
00:49:53,570 --> 00:49:56,230
how he says destroy, he's calling for change,

790
00:49:56,370 --> 00:49:58,910
destroyer and preserver. This is the wind, the

791
00:49:58,910 --> 00:50:01,090
wind of change, I don't know, revolution. It

792
00:50:01,090 --> 00:50:04,650
destroys, but it should also, it destroys to

793
00:50:04,650 --> 00:50:12,290
build. Here or here. He's also here, drive my dead

794
00:50:12,290 --> 00:50:17,540
thoughts to quicken a new birth. And also if you

795
00:50:17,540 --> 00:50:21,200
look there in the bottom here, the trumpet of a

796
00:50:21,200 --> 00:50:25,940
prophecy, oh wind, if winter comes, can spring be

797
00:50:25,940 --> 00:50:30,910
far behind? If winter comes, can spring be far

798
00:50:30,910 --> 00:50:33,150
behind? In The Mask of Anarchy, I mentioned

799
00:50:33,150 --> 00:50:36,070
earlier about the massacre of Manchester when the

800
00:50:36,070 --> 00:50:39,470
British police shot dead many protesters. Again,

801
00:50:39,570 --> 00:50:41,970
that's a very beautiful long poem where he openly

802
00:50:41,970 --> 00:50:43,930
calls for this. And this is again beautiful. I

803
00:50:43,930 --> 00:50:46,910
don't know why some people just don't like Shelley

804
00:50:46,910 --> 00:50:51,700
for being very obvious. Men of England, heirs of

805
00:50:51,700 --> 00:50:55,840
glory Heroes of unwritten story Nurslings of one

806
00:50:55,840 --> 00:51:00,720
mighty mother Hopes of hair and one another Rise

807
00:51:00,720 --> 00:51:05,920
like lions after slumber Wake up like lions when

808
00:51:05,920 --> 00:51:08,820
they wake up after sleep Slumber is sleep You know

809
00:51:08,820 --> 00:51:10,900
slumber party when you go to somebody's place and

810
00:51:10,900 --> 00:51:14,920
have fun and sleep there Rise like lions after

811
00:51:14,920 --> 00:51:19,660
slumber In unvanquishable number Shake your chains

812
00:51:19,660 --> 00:51:24,420
to earth like dew, which in sleep had fallen on

813
00:51:24,420 --> 00:51:30,060
you. Ye are many, they are few. People are many,

814
00:51:30,180 --> 00:51:31,980
the police are few.

815
00:51:35,060 --> 00:51:38,700
Okay, before I go back to Ozymandias, I want you

816
00:51:38,700 --> 00:51:41,820
to say something if you have to say something,

817
00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:46,400
please. Comment on something. Comment on what I

818
00:51:46,400 --> 00:51:49,060
said. Probably we can have time for that, for

819
00:51:49,060 --> 00:51:54,780
parodies. Please. Describing William Blake's work

820
00:51:54,780 --> 00:52:00,240
as being not a Londoner as a play, this reminds me

821
00:52:00,240 --> 00:52:05,760
of the poet that said, I think that this Arab

822
00:52:05,760 --> 00:52:08,940
poet, he tried to... He's an outsider, you mean?

823
00:52:09,200 --> 00:52:12,680
Exactly. Maybe these two can be related. Yes, we

824
00:52:12,680 --> 00:52:14,200
do not accept this, but we accept this.

825
00:52:17,270 --> 00:52:20,330
If you are an outsider, you don't feel, but again,

826
00:52:20,370 --> 00:52:25,430
you are a poet, you have to be special. Even if

827
00:52:25,430 --> 00:52:27,890
you're not there, you have, even Wordsworth said

828
00:52:27,890 --> 00:52:32,490
this, the extra comprehensive sensibility that

829
00:52:32,490 --> 00:52:35,570
poets own that other people don't. And it doesn't

830
00:52:35,570 --> 00:52:38,170
mean he didn't know what was going on in London

831
00:52:38,170 --> 00:52:44,630
and around the UK at that time. Please. Actually,

832
00:52:44,630 --> 00:52:49,390
I love both Wordsworth and Shelley, and at least

833
00:52:49,390 --> 00:52:53,490
people call Wordsworth an escapist, but at least

834
00:52:53,490 --> 00:52:56,070
Wordsworth as a man was true to himself, he didn't

835
00:52:56,070 --> 00:52:58,410
pretend to be something he was not. Is Shelley

836
00:52:58,410 --> 00:53:02,990
pretending something he was not? Shelly had so

837
00:53:02,990 --> 00:53:07,690
many ideas that he expressed in his poetry, but as

838
00:53:07,690 --> 00:53:14,570
a person, he never put them into action. Do you

839
00:53:14,570 --> 00:53:17,670
know that the second generation of the Romantics

840
00:53:17,670 --> 00:53:20,990
were very young, even died young? Shelley and Keats

841
00:53:20,990 --> 00:53:25,330
and Byron, all of them. They were jinxed. And you

842
00:53:25,330 --> 00:53:30,270
might not know this. When Wordsworth and Coleridge

843
00:53:30,270 --> 00:53:32,710
were writing poetry, they were not born yet. They

844
00:53:32,710 --> 00:53:35,230
were born, they wrote poetry, they died, and

845
00:53:35,230 --> 00:53:39,270
Wordsworth didn't want to die. He became like this

846
00:53:39,270 --> 00:53:42,030
patriarchal figure. Please read what Byron says

847
00:53:42,030 --> 00:53:43,130
about Wordsworth and Coleridge.

848
00:53:45,790 --> 00:53:48,870
He attacks them openly in his poetry.

849
00:54:03,380 --> 00:54:09,320
You know who's which romantic poet was More active

850
00:54:09,320 --> 00:54:12,180
in his life than others than just being a romantic

851
00:54:12,180 --> 00:54:18,290
and lying there? Do you know it was Byron? Byron

852
00:54:18,290 --> 00:54:20,170
was always a fighter. He was fighting against the

853
00:54:20,170 --> 00:54:23,230
Ottoman Empire somewhere in Cyprus, I guess.

854
00:54:28,050 --> 00:54:32,530
Shelley was rich. Shelley was also rich. Shelley was

855
00:54:32,530 --> 00:54:37,980
rich. Okay, so three years ago, three years ago,

856
00:54:39,940 --> 00:54:41,560
you know, when we talk about Ozymandias, going

857
00:54:41,560 -->

889
00:56:55,030 --> 00:56:57,250
I don't know what this brings to mind other than 

890
00:56:57,250 --> 00:56:57,670
nightmares.

891
00:57:00,680 --> 00:57:06,160
But in no way this looks like this Probably it's 

892
00:57:06,160 --> 00:57:13,940
similar in a bit in a way I don't know And

893
00:57:13,940 --> 00:57:22,560
then this one Compare the almost real picture to 

894
00:57:22,560 --> 00:57:28,590
the sculpture I'll come back to this in a bit. Now

895
00:57:28,590 --> 00:57:30,750
going back to the text so we can wrap things up.

896
00:57:31,270 --> 00:57:33,210
Remember I told you this is a, we mentioned this 

897
00:57:33,210 --> 00:57:36,590
in passing, but I want to repeat things so we have

898
00:57:36,590 --> 00:57:37,410
confirmation.

899
00:57:39,640 --> 00:57:43,920
I said that this could be read in many ways. There 

900
00:57:43,920 --> 00:57:47,180
is an American critic, M.H. Abrams, who drew this. 

901
00:57:47,520 --> 00:57:50,400
He said there are four main categories. Almost all 

902
00:57:50,400 --> 00:57:53,200
literary theories can be categorized under these 

903
00:57:53,200 --> 00:57:57,620
four parts. But he doesn't draw a square, he does 

904
00:57:57,620 --> 00:58:00,780
a triangle. He says there are theories that

905
00:58:00,780 --> 00:58:02,700
examine the text, the relationship between the

906
00:58:02,700 --> 00:58:05,590
text and the world, the universe. There are 

907
00:58:05,590 --> 00:58:08,090
theories that examine the relationship between the 

908
00:58:08,090 --> 00:58:13,510
text and the writer, the poet. Expressive, this is 

909
00:58:13,510 --> 00:58:16,770
mimetic theories, you know, my missus is my

910
00:58:16,770 --> 00:58:23,590
missus. This is expressive theories. And there are 

911
00:58:23,590 --> 00:58:25,690
theories that study the relationship between the 

912
00:58:25,690 --> 00:58:31,630
text and the reader, the audience. What is the

913
00:58:31,630 --> 00:58:36,250
fourth category? Thank you very much. The theories

914
00:58:36,250 --> 00:58:39,030
that examine the text, the relationship, like what

915
00:58:39,030 --> 00:58:43,790
we have, the words on the page. We are involved in 

916
00:58:43,790 --> 00:58:47,010
a process of close reading of the text. This is M

917
00:58:47,010 --> 00:58:51,290
.H. Abrams, mimetic theories, the relationship

918
00:58:51,290 --> 00:58:53,350
between the text and the world, the universe, how

919
00:58:53,350 --> 00:58:56,210
close the representation is. And then the

920
00:58:56,210 --> 00:58:59,370
expressive theories, basically the romantic theory 

921
00:58:59,370 --> 00:59:03,040
here, how poetry is self-expression. and how the

922
00:59:03,040 --> 00:59:07,020
poet and the poem are one, inseparable. And then 

923
00:59:07,020 --> 00:59:09,480
the pragmatic theories, the didactic theories, 

924
00:59:09,640 --> 00:59:12,420
where poetry is written to teach and delight. So

925
00:59:12,420 --> 00:59:15,060
you examine the relationship between, you examine

926
00:59:15,060 --> 00:59:18,540
the impact the text has on the reader, the 

927
00:59:18,540 --> 00:59:20,520
audience. And then finally, the objective 

928
00:59:20,520 --> 00:59:22,840
theories, usually this is 20th century theories, 

929
00:59:23,060 --> 00:59:26,920
like new criticism and even structuralism, 

930
00:59:27,060 --> 00:59:29,360
formalism, and deconstruction, et cetera.

931
00:59:30,360 --> 00:59:34,720
Objective theories, They say the text is self

932
00:59:34,720 --> 00:59:39,300
-enclosed, autonomous, independent of the

933
00:59:39,300 --> 00:59:41,820
surrounding, even the social circumstances and the

934
00:59:41,820 --> 00:59:44,940
life of the author. The meaning of the text is in

935
00:59:44,940 --> 00:59:48,040
the text. All you need to do is to look at the 

936
00:59:48,040 --> 00:59:50,580
words on the page, to do a close reading, to

937
00:59:50,580 --> 00:59:53,200
examine the form, the shape, the structure, the

938
00:59:53,200 --> 00:59:56,160
language, the literary devices, the ironies, the

939
00:59:56,160 --> 00:59:58,300
puns, the ambiguity, the paradoxes, and if you 

940
00:59:58,300 --> 01:00:01,120
understand this, if you see the binary opposites, 

941
01:00:01,180 --> 01:00:02,960
you get the tension, you understand the poem.

942
01:00:04,640 --> 01:00:09,180
Okay? So if we go back to the text, like we did

943
01:00:09,180 --> 01:00:14,160
last time, New criticism, new critic, this is what

944
01:00:14,160 --> 01:00:17,200
we usually do. We focus more on what the text

945
01:00:17,200 --> 01:00:21,740
tells us without the, so this thing, remember we 

946
01:00:21,740 --> 01:00:25,640
said that the sonnet here, the poem is a sonnet. 

947
01:00:26,900 --> 01:00:31,000
We describe this sonnet as, thank you very much,

948
01:00:31,460 --> 01:00:35,100
some kind of a formless sonnet in the sense that 

949
01:00:35,100 --> 01:00:38,060
it doesn't have a regular rhyme scheme.

950
01:00:41,250 --> 01:00:44,090
Even the rhyme scheme itself here has like three

951
01:00:44,090 --> 01:00:47,750
imperfect rhymes. It doesn't have clear structure 

952
01:00:47,750 --> 01:00:53,310
in terms of octaves, sextets, couplets. You don't 

953
01:00:53,310 --> 01:00:57,070
know where things go, where things end. Now

954
01:00:57,070 --> 01:01:01,670
usually we need to make this observation for us to 

955
01:01:01,670 --> 01:01:04,330
ask a very significant question. Why is this? In 

956
01:01:04,330 --> 01:01:09,150
order to look for the meaning. Why is this there? 

957
01:01:12,930 --> 01:01:16,810
Why does the poet not follow Shakespeare or

958
01:01:16,810 --> 01:01:19,750
Petrarch? This is the kind of question I would be

959
01:01:19,750 --> 01:01:22,690
asking you in your exams. You should be aware of

960
01:01:22,690 --> 01:01:26,650
that. So I might ask you, why doesn't Shelley

961
01:01:26,650 --> 01:01:33,810
follow the Shakespearean sonnet or the Petrarchan 

962
01:01:33,810 --> 01:01:37,900
sonnet or both? I could be more specific. In this

963
01:01:37,900 --> 01:01:39,920
case, this question is a little bit general. I 

964
01:01:39,920 --> 01:01:42,500
want you to zoom in for the specific point. I want

965
01:01:42,500 --> 01:01:44,380
you to start the answer, your topic sentence

966
01:01:44,380 --> 01:01:49,440
saying that Shelley uses a formless and irregular

967
01:01:49,440 --> 01:01:54,200
sonnet. First, you need to show me where it is, 

968
01:01:54,300 --> 01:01:58,220
why, how it is irregular. And second, you need to 

969
01:01:58,220 --> 01:02:02,940
connect this with the theme of the topic. So in 

970
01:02:02,940 --> 01:02:05,780
many ways, what do we have inside the poem? What

971
01:02:05,780 --> 01:02:09,680
we have inside the poem is ruins, remains, wreck,

972
01:02:10,620 --> 01:02:13,420
right? We have something that's shattered and

973
01:02:13,420 --> 01:02:17,200
broken. We have the remains of something. So in 

974
01:02:17,200 --> 01:02:21,410
many ways, I see that he is echoing this. He's 

975
01:02:21,410 --> 01:02:24,390
echoing this as if he's saying we don't Arabs,

976
01:02:24,930 --> 01:02:29,570
Africans, we don't deserve a perfect sonnet.

977
01:02:30,410 --> 01:02:33,310
So when the poem is about decline of authority, 

978
01:02:33,470 --> 01:02:36,950
decline of about the, I usually like to use this

979
01:02:36,950 --> 01:02:40,410
term because there is less, trunkless, lifeless,

980
01:02:40,570 --> 01:02:43,310
three lesses, right? And boundless, and also

981
01:02:43,310 --> 01:02:48,310
rhymeless, formless, so it's about less, lessness.

982
01:02:49,600 --> 01:02:52,760
about decay, about destructiveness, about 

983
01:02:52,760 --> 01:02:55,920
transience of time. This is a romantic theme in 

984
01:02:55,920 --> 01:02:56,400
many ways.

985
01:02:59,420 --> 01:03:02,300
The second thing we need to look at is, we

986
01:03:02,300 --> 01:03:05,140
mentioned the rhymes, sorry, the puns here, the 

987
01:03:05,140 --> 01:03:09,400
possible puns in lies. The shuttered visage, lies. 

988
01:03:09,960 --> 01:03:13,540
Lies there is sitting there, lying around, but 

989
01:03:13,540 --> 01:03:16,160
also lies not telling the truth. So the facial

990
01:03:16,160 --> 01:03:19,440
expressions are lying to us. And also mock which

991
01:03:19,440 --> 01:03:23,780
has two meanings, mock to imitate, to copy and

992
01:03:23,780 --> 01:03:27,540
mock to ridicule, to make fun of. But look at how 

993
01:03:27,540 --> 01:03:29,960
beautiful this is, how this changes because time 

994
01:03:29,960 --> 01:03:32,600
changes. At that time mock meant only mock

995
01:03:32,600 --> 01:03:36,970
imitate. He imitated the facial expressions, these 

996
01:03:36,970 --> 01:03:40,350
passions perfectly. But now that it is broken, 

997
01:03:40,570 --> 01:03:45,410
destroyed, shattered, half sunk and nothing but 

998
01:03:45,410 --> 01:03:48,670
decay and desert and sands around, this means

999
01:03:48,670 --> 01:03:52,920
mocking may make fun, make fun of. Now the most 

1000
01:03:52,920 --> 01:03:54,360
significant thing, probably one of the most 

1001
01:03:54,360 --> 01:03:57,160
significant ironies in English poetry is, my name 

1002
01:03:57,160 --> 01:04:00,040
is Ozymandias, king of kings. Look on my works, ye 

1003
01:04:00,040 --> 01:04:03,300
mighty and ye and. When we look, what do we find?

1004
01:04:03,640 --> 01:04:06,600
It's ironic because it says, I am king of kings, 

1005
01:04:06,700 --> 01:04:09,560
but in reality, look at him. He's no king, he's 

1006
01:04:09,560 --> 01:04:14,540
nothing. Even the greatest of us will die also.

1007
01:04:15,950 --> 01:04:19,250
But I also want you to think of how now, for 

1008
01:04:19,250 --> 01:04:22,790
example, when all sculptures have been fixed and 

1009
01:04:22,790 --> 01:04:27,630
rebuilt by scientists in the past century. So it 

1010
01:04:27,630 --> 01:04:31,630
was all standing and powerful and then it was

1011
01:04:31,630 --> 01:04:35,230
destroyed and now it's going back to. So I think

1012
01:04:35,230 --> 01:04:38,810
this changes the way we react to this. Imagine

1013
01:04:38,810 --> 01:04:41,870
yourself living in the time of Ozymandias and 

1014
01:04:41,870 --> 01:04:45,600
passing by this. you would be shaking, right?

1015
01:04:45,700 --> 01:04:48,840
You'd be like, oh, because it is intimidating.

1016
01:04:49,020 --> 01:04:53,500
This was a sign he's even calling us to despair.

1017
01:04:55,020 --> 01:04:58,460
Not his

1018
01:04:58,460 --> 01:05:01,400
people, the mighty, like some suggested that this

1019
01:05:01,400 --> 01:05:03,780
could be a call for the enemies, look, you can't

1020
01:05:03,780 --> 01:05:06,100
defeat us, which changes many things about him.

1021
01:05:06,720 --> 01:05:11,580
Now, both the irony and the puns create ambiguity. 

1022
01:05:13,230 --> 01:05:16,110
Create a paradox here. Does he mean this? Does he

1023
01:05:16,110 --> 01:05:18,550
mean that? What does it mean? Does it mean lying?

1024
01:05:18,770 --> 01:05:20,230
Does it mean just sitting there? 

1025
01:05:23,210 --> 01:05:26,330
Now analyzing this is what a new critic would be 

1026
01:05:26,330 --> 01:05:27,210
doing.

1027
01:05:29,670 --> 01:05:32,250
Remember we said post-colonialism with Edward 

1028
01:05:32,250 --> 01:05:38,130
Said, another post-colonial would be interested on

1029
01:05:38,130 --> 01:05:42,470
how the text is constructing the idea, the image

1030
01:05:42,470 --> 01:05:47,050
of the other, us. People of the Middle East, Asia, 

1031
01:05:47,450 --> 01:05:51,150
and Africa, and India, and probably the Caribbean,

1032
01:05:51,510 --> 01:05:53,790
South America, like people who are not European, 

1033
01:05:53,990 --> 01:05:56,830
white, et cetera. I love this statement by Edward 

1034
01:05:56,830 --> 01:06:01,130
Said from Orientalism. The Orient, us, shock, has 

1035
01:06:01,130 --> 01:06:04,370
helped to define Europe or the West as its 

1036
01:06:05,710 --> 01:06:07,830
contrasting image. We always want something to 

1037
01:06:07,830 --> 01:06:09,850
compare to so we understand where we're lying.

1038
01:06:11,200 --> 01:06:13,320
Contrasting image, idea, personality, experience,

1039
01:06:13,440 --> 01:06:16,280
et cetera. So we were significant because if we 

1040
01:06:16,280 --> 01:06:18,700
are backward, they are advanced. If we are 

1041
01:06:18,700 --> 01:06:22,720
inferior, they are superior. If we are savages, 

1042
01:06:22,860 --> 01:06:26,100
uncivilized, they are civilized. And there's this

1043
01:06:26,100 --> 01:06:30,220
thing about the white man, the moral obligation to

1044
01:06:30,220 --> 01:06:32,720
come here and to civilize us. Yes, to take all our 

1045
01:06:32,720 --> 01:06:36,060
gold and raw materials and everything, but it's 

1046
01:06:36,060 --> 01:06:38,400
their job to come. It's their moral obligation to

1047
01:06:38,400 --> 01:06:42,010
come and to civilize us. So Edward Said would be

1048
01:06:42,010 --> 01:06:44,710
questioning how he's constructing this idea, this 

1049
01:06:44,710 --> 01:06:46,570
negative idea about the Middle East, leaving 

1050
01:06:46,570 --> 01:06:50,010
everything and focusing on how the sand, the 

1051
01:06:50,010 --> 01:06:52,530
desert, the antique, the shattered, how he 

1052
01:06:52,530 --> 01:06:56,150
presents Arabs as or Africans as people who weep

1053
01:06:56,150 --> 01:06:59,010
over the spilled milk. We are invested in the

1054
01:06:59,010 --> 01:07:02,310
past. We're not invested in the present or even in 

1055
01:07:02,310 --> 01:07:05,870
the future. I also find two things interesting. 

1056
01:07:07,220 --> 01:07:10,620
How did this traveler get there? We don't know. 

1057
01:07:10,700 --> 01:07:13,660
We're not told. How did he understand the 

1058
01:07:13,660 --> 01:07:16,720
inscription written in ancient Egyptian language? 

1059
01:07:17,500 --> 01:07:20,560
My assumption is that there must be a guide and a 

1060
01:07:20,560 --> 01:07:24,240
translator or one person who did this thing. But

1061
01:07:24,240 --> 01:07:26,980
what is he doing to them, to the locals? He's 

1062
01:07:26,980 --> 01:07:30,270
erasing them. They don't exist. They don't exist, 

1063
01:07:30,370 --> 01:07:34,570
exactly like what Zionist poetry literature did to

1064
01:07:34,570 --> 01:07:36,750
Palestine and Palestinians. Palestinians never

1065
01:07:36,750 --> 01:07:39,690
existed. It's a land without a people waiting for 

1066
01:07:39,690 --> 01:07:41,690
a people without a land. And when Palestinians 

1067
01:07:41,690 --> 01:07:45,270
exist there, they're savages. They're uncivilized. 

1068
01:07:45,910 --> 01:07:49,150
And I also find it interesting because I'm sure 

1069
01:07:49,150 --> 01:07:52,250
some of you want to be translators. Sadly, 

1070
01:07:52,410 --> 01:07:54,550
translators don't take a lot of credit. They're 

1071
01:07:54,550 --> 01:07:57,050
usually erased. If you do a great job, usually

1072
01:07:57,050 --> 01:07:59,810
people don't care about you. If you just make one

1073
01:07:59,810 --> 01:08:03,350
tiny little mistake, you have to pay for that.

1074
01:08:06,330 --> 01:08:10,150
Okay, look at the feminist reading here. And this 

1075
01:08:10,150 --> 01:08:15,460
can be seen as overstretching by some of you. Now

1076
01:08:1

1111
01:10:09,390 --> 01:10:11,590
but think about this, because there's this, always 

1112
01:10:11,590 --> 01:10:14,310
please, think about how we have always been 

1113
01:10:14,310 --> 01:10:17,090
trained and even most of you here, if you paid

1114
01:10:17,090 --> 01:10:19,790
attention, when you talk about the poet, you say

1115
01:10:19,790 --> 01:10:22,410
he, even when some of you talk about the reader,

1116
01:10:22,610 --> 01:10:26,120
you say he. Why would you assume that the reader 

1117
01:10:26,120 --> 01:10:32,880
is a he? The poet is a he. Okay, so I'll stop

1118
01:10:32,880 --> 01:10:34,720
here, but before if you have any question, any

1119
01:10:34,720 --> 01:10:39,620
point to raise, please do. Okay, thank you very 

1120
01:10:39,620 --> 01:10:42,160
much. If you have a question, you can stay behind 

1121
01:10:42,160 --> 01:10:44,140
or you can rush back to your other classes.