The Devil in Poems of Abu Nuwas Literature & Language Essay (Essay Sample)

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The Devil in Poems of Abu Nuwas
Abu Nuwas is recognized as one among the greatest poets in the Arab community who has written several poems that are studied and applied in different avenues today. The artist who is known for his lyrical prowess in the topics of love, wine and pederasty was quite different from other poets of his time. Unlike other Persian poets who emphasized the use of metaphors in their works, Abu Nuwas delighted in the expression of his life experiences in the form of humorous realism (Justin). Furthermore, he genuinely admitted his sins in his works but declined to turn away from such evils even though ironically he advocated for those reading his poems not to follow his ways. It is this fact that has raised questions among poetic analysts who attempt to explain the role of evil and the devil as a literary figure in Abu Nuwas’ pieces.
Arabic poetry has two main approaches to love poems which were a great specialty of Abu Nuwas. These techniques were adopted in the seventeenth century and the first one is termed as “udhri” which refers to a genre that promoted chastity and the second approach is the “ibahi” which is more of a sensual and erotic genre (Montgomery 78). Abu Nuwas as an artist is a product of these two approaches to Arabic love poetry through which he exercised unique tones and registers that confirm the experiences garnered from literally schools. However, the subject of the devil is brought to light through his poems that display the dominance of sexual desire and content. This fact is manifested in his composition of both homoerotic and heterosexual poems with the former dominating with more than 450 poems.