Aoileann Ni Mhurchu
While poetry has limitations and does not hold the same political power as a policy or law, it is still inherently political. This is true on two principle levels. Firstly, in the words popularised by the feminist Carol Hanisch in 1968, “the personal is political.” The theory embodied by this statement sought to include groups such as women who were previously relegated to the private realm of the household and excluded from political discussion. Given that all forms of art, including poetry, are before all else pieces of personal expression, it logically follows that poetry is political on this principle level. Secondly, given that studied poetry is either published or performed in front of an audience, it transcends the public-private divide upon which the difference between the political and non-political is predicated. Therefore, according to Aristotelian logic, poetry is intrinsically political in and of itself.
This essay will consider the quotation from two standpoints: first, the political nature of poetry through the work of Mahmoud Darwish and Forough Farrokhzad, discussing themes of identity, hope and intention; and second, themes outside the particular political context of each poet and what the consequences are of labelling poetry in this way.
Background of Poets
Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008) was one of the most distinguished Palestinian poets. Raised in Galilee as an “internal refugee,” he spent the rest of his life living in exile in Beirut, Ramallah, Amman, Paris and Texas, where he passed away after his third heart operation. He played a key role in shaping Palestinian identity through his poetry and as editor of the PLO Research Centre’s review, “Shu’un Filastiniyya”, and contributor to the drafting of the Palestinian Declaration of Independence (1988).
Forough Farrokhzad (1934-1967) played a pivotal role in paving the way for women to engage in modern literary culture in Iran. She was the first female poet to gain prominence in her own right while also breaking barriers surrounding poetic form and subject matter. Her life as a woman who grew up in a traditional household before breaking off her marriage to live an independent life and provide for herself as an artist mimicked the content of her work. Her tragic death in a car accident led to “posthumous celebrations of her work,” before it was banned after the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and became a symbol of resistance.
Political Identity through the Theme of Hope
In the words of Darwish, “I don’t think that a poet is entitled to a greater degree of happiness that some people seek refuge in his lines of poetry as if they were real houses.” This quotation demonstrates the importance of the perception of the people Darwish seeks to represent and give hope to in his poetry. In his poem, “The Second Olive Tree” , Darwish gives hope to the Palestinian cause when he compares the death of a martyr to the revival of Palestine, using the metaphor as a source of comfort to people who have lost those close to them. Sazzad argues that Darwish draws on a common theme of sumud, or resilience to avoid compromising on the future restoration of the Palestinian homeland. While there is no doubt resilience is a core motif, Singh adds that regardless of the potential of this reality, using this expectation as a basis for storytelling and the development and perpetuation of Palestinian identity during this time of “waiting” provides comfort and hope. Darwish’s work, alongside the poetry of other Palestinian writers, gives voice to collective trauma. By giving voice to this massive loss while also keeping hope for the future, this form of art ensures that Palestinian identity is kept alive in both a political and cultural sense.
Farrokhzad engages the representation of Iranian women through shared experiences and societal pressures, bringing the private into the public, political realm. In the poem “Wind-Up Doll,” the monotony of married life, despite fulfilling societal norms, which considered marriage to be the epitome of success and happiness, depicts the trapped reality that many women experienced. A life without self-fulfilment with a set gendered role to play, brilliantly illustrated through the portrait of a porcelain doll. Moreover, in “Call to Arms,” Farrokhzad prompts Iranian women to break this ‘ideal’ of what their lives should be, inciting them to demand respect and to abandon ‘feminine attributes’ of being affectionate, gentle and devoted in exchange for embracing “a flood of nger, hate and pain.” Farrokhzad uses her platform to share the actual experience of living in a society where where an individual is supposed to follow a set path and be content with it even if they are unhappy or oppressed. She not only speaks of the Iranian female experience but of a universal experience faced by women living under oppressive patriarchal structures of varying magnitude in different places and at different times.
Intention versus Political Perception
The examples of poetry below illustrate the perception of a political dichotomy between those who govern and those who live with the consequences of governance. In contrast to the sense of belonging, hope and spirit perceived by the target audiences of both Darwish and Farrokhzad, there are clear examples of unintended impacts from their work including backlash and trivialisation. This is due to their work being perceived as a threat by those in power due to the discontent portrayed through their work representing those who share similar identities to them which could lead to further incitement.
During the last century, Darwish’s work received political backlash from Israeli figures such as the poet Haim Guri. Guri feared that poetry such as that of Darwish had the potential “to give the right the Knesset seats it needs for a possible majority in the elections.” It is interesting to note that even though some of the reaction is probably unintentional as it is not in the Palestinian cause’s interest to have a right-wing government, both reactions highlight the fragility of Israeli mentality surrounding Palestinian expression no matter what the form. This fragility could potentially be linked to the lack of clarity surrounding the drawing of borders. Darwish’s use of inflammatory language in his poem “ID Card,” where he explicitly calls out the government (“Will your government take them like people say?”) can be exemplified as an act of provocation. Regardless of whether Darwish was trying to evoke a reaction from the Israelis or not with this poem, the feelings of pent-up rage he expresses are representative of a large proportion of people. Therefore, the outcry and backlash received were in line with the fear and level of threat that Israelis thought they faced from a perceived homogenous population, whether from a poem expressing personal and collective pain disenfranchisement or an official statement from the PLO.
Farrokhzad’s work, on the other hand, faced trivialisation during her lifetime from many critics, which operated “according to masculine perceptions and values,” reducing her earlier work to themes of sexuality. For example, her poem “In Night’s Cold Streets” contrasts perfectly against “Wind Up Doll.” In this poem, Farrokhzad breaks away from societal and religious norms of what life was for women in the status quo. She is making her own decisions and fully engaging with her autonomy in an independent manner, free from coercion. Consequently, after her untimely death in 1967, it is no surprise that criticism made way for commemoration due to the profound impact she made on a new generation of female poets inspired by her work. However, after the foundation of the Islamic Republic in 1979, although her poetry was officially banned, it was popular on the black market and used by university students as a form of protest in the early 1980s in Tehran. Milani discusses how Farrokhzad couples the “themes of classical Persian poetry” with an authentic idea of Iranian modernity that is not dependent on Western “inspiration and explication.” It can be argued that Farrokhzad’s authenticity allowed her work to be weaponised and politicised, regardless if that was the intention of each poem in question given the diversity present in her work, resulting in fear of internal threat by Iranian authorities.
Themes External to Core Political Context
It is pivotal to explore the individual complexities of the work of these poets that can be missed when looking through a political lens with a specific aim.
Firstly, it is interesting to look at Darwish’s use of gender in his poetry. Since gender roles were created by the same patriarchal structure that also created imperialism, Darwish is inadvertently complicit with the imperialist status quo he opposes- reinforced after the Industrial Revolution and the construction of capitalist economies. This culminated in the creation of a world order where asymmetries of power became the norm from which events leading to the suffering of the Palestinian people alongside many others throughout the centuries stemmed. Due to the common theme of nostalgia in Palestinian literature, these references tend to ascribe to traditional roles. In “ID Card,” the men of his village work “in the fields and quarries,” whereas in “The Second Olive Tree,” the tree is the “hillside’s modest
lady,” a metaphor for the land of Palestine itself, depicted as a grandmother who cares for her offspring. While Darwish references the mythological Caanite figure of Anat in some of his work, the vast majority of references to resistance are based on traditional gender norms. This clashes with Hamdi’s argument that Darwish uses female resistance as a mechanism to counteract “an oppressive imperialistic construct.”
The theme of individual self-growth is compelling to analyse through Farrokhzad’s poetry. Milani discusses how Farrokhzad’s development is evident through self-description. In her earlier work, Farrokhzad “evaluates herself” in relation to those around her. This is followed by a progression to seeing herself as an individual “in her own right,” with personal needs, wants and ambitions. One can see how, through this growth and rejection of societal conditioning, she is able to develop her own confidence and ability to use her own voice as a force for change. This is particularly evident in “Call to Arms,” where each actor in the poem is an individual. She is not using a description of a woman’s relationship to a male figure to tell women to rise against patriarchal structures. This distinction is critical as the poet, through her words, gives back the independence that women had been internalised to believe they did not possess. While this impact is smaller than the main interpretations of her work, its impact is more meaningful as it is relatable and empowering for those who have had their personal identities suppressed.
Conclusion
While both the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish and Forough Farrokhzad is political in nature, there is more to their poetry than the political causes they represent. Due to the lack of control the poet themselves have over their work once it is published and the lack of epistemic access the audience has to the poet in conjunction with the diversity between different poets’ works and collections, there is implicit harm in labelling all their work as political. As a result of this, limitations may be imposed on the quality of engagement with the work due to how this label is perceived. There is a danger that the audience focuses on searching for a particular political meaning and subsequently only engages with the work through that lens.
Ultimately, it can be argued that it does a disservice to the work to characterise it as such.
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Farrokhzad, Forough. “Call to Arms.”
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