Animal Symbolism in the Poetry of Mohammad Hussein Haitham

Abstract

     This study deals with the method of the modern poet Mohammed Hussein Haitham of the use and the function of the animal in his creative output. This style of animal's use and function in poetry is considered an ancient Arab poetic style, but it is distinguishably used by Haitham with its symbolic dimensions and its devotedness as an objective correlative to the poet's living reality. It is a transformation that embodies his perspective of the present and foretelling his future. The symbolic presence of the animal was manifested in the poet’s product in the thresholds of some of his books and texts, in the folds of some of his texts and their multiplications, and revealed this presence, through an intentional creative approach crammed with the richness and radiance of connotation. This makes the poet able to anticipate the world of reality and to be alert to its pitfalls and predict its future.