The effectiveness of natural and cosmic symbols in the poetry of Muhammad Reda Al-Shabibi

Abstract

By numbering his thoughts in the context of different symbols, a person can find a way to record them, provide renewed reference to them, and enable others to understand the concepts and meanings. The era of the use of symbols dates back to the earliest stages of human history. One of the important functions of the symbol, as one of the most prominent poetic manifestations of contemporary poets, is to express the turbulent and deteriorating social and political conditions. The current research aims, through the use of the descriptive analytical method, to reveal the role of symbolic components in interpreting and clarifying the views of Muhammad Reda Al-Shabibi. One of the most important findings of the research is that the symbols of Al-Shabibi expressed the suffering of the oppressed Iraqi people during the period of tyranny of the Ottoman Turks and the influence of the colonialists who attacked this country. Natural symbols were the product of the poet's mental creativity and were characterized by semantic diversity, and it seems that he was influenced in this field by the Symbolist school. Among the most frequently used symbols in his poetry are the crow, the dove, the wolf, the lion, the star, the sun, the wind, and the stone, especially the night, which is considered the most prominent and important in it, as it reflects an image of darkness, chaos, and despair. The meanings of its symbols are characterized by simplicity and clarity and are not exaggerated at all, so that the speech does not become ambiguous and its understanding and deduction are difficult for the addressee. In addition to all this darkness, desolation, and pessimism, he is a poet full of hope for the future. He sings of the nation’s pride, independence, and elevation, and mobilizes all his determination to awaken the people.