Poetic Image

Arabic sources generally refer to Ibrahim b. Harma (d. ca. 176/792) as one of the “last poets” whose poetry is quoted as lexical and linguistic evidence of sound and “unaffected” language, in other words “pure” Arabic. However, while we argue that the poet’s “pure” Arabic is the main reason for his place of excellence in classical Arabic poetry, we suggest that the poet was well aware of the power of poetic imagery imposed by the new modernity experienced in the Abbasid era. Ibn Harma skillfully
developed the new tool as a means of self-expression in a conscious search for poetic immortality. In this article, we aim to explore the poetic imagery of Ibn Harma through textual analysis of a selection of his poetry.

Adopting a comparative approach to the transcendental outputs of poetic language (the forms of language as an exploration of the representation and synthesis of possible worlds), the essay examines how dominant figurations of the poetic image synthesize characteristic metaphysical-temporal configurations of the real.
      Starting from an experience in medias res of three poems by authors who are classics of their traditions (Horace’s “Ode 4.2”, Du Fu’s “Thinking of Li Po on a Spring Day” and Ezra Pound’s “Canto IV”), we establish how these poems that on the face of it seem to be about the same thing, appearing as tributes to their respective literary predecessors (Pindar, Li Po and Browning), actually differ greatly in the workings of their poetic imagery. This opens the way to a reflection on how their primary poetic figurations, which more broadly reflect the habits of linguistic figuration dominant in their traditions (analogical metaphor in classical poetics, correlative parallelism in Chinese poetics, and the fragmentation-juxtaposition of montage in contemporary poetics), project characteristic metaphysical-temporal configurations (comparison and substitutive referral from the sense-image to the idea in classical ontology, the Tao or Process of correlative unfolding in the Chinese tradition, and that conception of an epiphanic transcendence in immanence, interruption amidst simultaneity, which increasingly defines contemporary representation). The basic solidarities discernible between ‘forms of the poem’ and ‘conceptions of the world’ enable us to outline a more general proposition about the way the dominant habits of poetic imagery project the ideal conceptions whereby a culture responds to the inevitable question about what constitutes the basis of the real.

Advance organizers activate the most suitable schema to learn new material. Poetic
images are signified in schemata and the elements which are not expressed may be
called by advance organizers. The purpose of this investigation is to discern the
effectiveness of advance organizers on the signification of poetic images. Pretestposttest
experimental design with a control group was used in the study. The two
sophomore groups from the Social Sciences Teaching department at Dokuz Eylül
University formed the sample for the study. 74 students (36 in the experimental
group, 38 in the control group) participated in the study. The experimental group
was given advance organizers. Data were collected by the Achievement Test, measuring
the signification of poetic images. There was a statistically significant difference
(p<0.01) between the groups in the signification of poetic images after the
treatment. The difference was in favor of the experimental group.