The Queen Who Serves the Slaves: From Politics to Metapoetics in the Poetry of Qsim Haddd

The following article deals with the poetry of the Bahraini poet Q¨sim add¨d, one of the most prominent modernist Arab poets of our time. One of add¨dÕs main characteristics in his habit of recurrently changing his poetic style and poetic themes over the years, and this article seeks to highlight the signi. cant transformations add¨dÕs poetry underwent during his career. The article argues that one of the most important transformations is the shift add¨d made from leftist committed poetry in the 1970s toward a highly modernist poetics in the 1980s and 90s. In uenced by Adonis, the key . gure among Arab modernist poets, add¨d tends to re ect upon meta-poetic themes in his later poetic works-themes such as the exploration of the creative process, the poem as a creator of a new world, the innate gap between language and the poetÕs personal and poetic experience, etc. add¨d tackles these themes by using an innovative poetic style and a low-key tone, and succeeds in drawing the readerÕs attention to the complexity and the poignancy of his poetry.