The Poetic Necessity between Al-Sirafi and Ibn Asfour Al-Ishbili (Comparative Essay).

Abstract

Ancient Arabic grammarians and critics called the term "poetic necessity" many different linguistic phenomena, and they believed that meter and rhyme compel the poet to commit what is not customary in the linguistic system. They concluded that poetry differs from prose, and that it has its own level and structures that match its music. Poetry is an emotional language, and so the poet resorts to words and structures that he believes are more revealing of meaning, scale, and rhyme. And among the ancients who spoke of poetic necessity, Al-Sirafi (368 AH) and Ibn Asfour Al-Ishbili (669 AH), what are the limits of poetic necessity for each of them?