Gray Hair in the Old Arabic Poetry - A Descriptive Analytical Study

Abstract

This study, titled “Youth in Ancient Arabic Poetry”, addresses the phenomenon of youth as it emerged in Arabic poetry. The poets expressed it through their techniques, visions, and their existential experience, which reflects a transition from vitality and prosperity to the announcement of the approach of death and demise. The poets became preoccupied with inner anxiety, tension, and sadness as the flame of life dimmed. Some tried to hide this youthfulness, which appears younger when we find poets using verbs and promises deceitfully and falsely. Some poets, however, responded differently and saw in youth wisdom and righteousness. They created a rhetorical system that reinforced the values that society feared and exposed this youthfulness. The poet’s conflict with youth often manifested in symbolic cases. For example, the man’s departure when preoccupied with the hardship of life and its struggles reflected his resistance to aging. If a woman’s absence pushed him toward loneliness, then the mother’s pain inspired him to surrender to a seductive woman, a tempting experience, or a fatal adventure that transcended these limitations.