Yahia As-Samawi. A Nation in Exile

Abstract

The present paper is a critical analysis of the various aspects of a central theme in the poetry of the Iraqi contemporary poet Yahia As-Samawi; it is the theme of exile. Exile is a typical theme  in As-Samawi's poetry, and the exiled figure, whether in one's own country or abroad, roams through the poet's oeuvre from the first of his many technically and thematically varied collections of poetry to the most recent of them. In this, As-Samawi is a representative poet who typically and forcibly expresses the conditions which Iraq has been going through for several decades of its modern history, during which the country and its people have witnessed the worst kind  of dictatorship  and totalitarian rule. As a result of this, Iraq was turned into a nation in exile, and poet Yahia As-Samawi was to become the best spokesman for the people's hopes and aspirations and the most expressive of the nation's dilemma. He thus can rightly claim a position that places him in the company of such great classical poets of modern times. He can also claim an equally  important position among the innovators of modern Arabic poetry, the practitioners of the so-called free-verse movement.