The Poet?s Elegy of the Self Across Arabic and English Poetry: A case Study of John Keats and Malik Ibn Ar-Rayb

This study investigates elegiac verse, particularly elegies of the self, across English and Arabic poetry, by comparing John Keats?s ?When I have Fears that I may Cease to be? and the Arab poet Malik Ibn Ar-Rayb?s poem ?Malik Ibn Ar-Rayb Yarthy Nafsah?, ?Malik Ibn Ar-Rayb mourning his own death?. Despite a few differences, it turns out that both English and Arabic elegiac verse share a great deal of elements in content and technique, reflecting a similar pattern of mourning. There are general elegy-related similarities and the differences remain personal (due to the poet?s individuality-for two poets of the same culture write different elegies) in addition to minor culture-bound differences. Sorrow, sincerity, and praise are essential components shared by the poems which, more than physical strength or handsomeness, emphasize the qualities of the mind and the spirit, and transform personal grief into universal statements on the futility of human existence, within a philosophical argument on life, death, human relations, accomplishments, and poetic creativity. Poetry is celebrated as a distinction the loss of which to mourn, the power of which to pride oneself at, and the help of which to invoke in order to eloquently (still sincerely) express the situation of mourning and, at the same time, immortalize the poet. Nonetheless, Despite that fact that poetry is important for both poets and Ibn Ar-Rayb is not less interested in poetry than Keats, the two are different in this regard in personal and cultural terms. While Keats is mainly and finally sad at his wasted poetic talent, Ibn Ar-Rayb?s sadness at the loss of his poetic endeavor is less apparent and important than the tragic loss of his heroic skills. It is hoped that reading Keats?s and Ibn Ar-Rayb?s self-elegies and the light shed on the parallel and unparallel aspects across both poets and cultures may provide a seminal point of departure for further research, which this paper will hopefully provoke.