Images of Nature in the Poetry of Abu Al-Qasim Al-Shabbi

The article proposes to explore the images of nature in the poetry of Abu Al-Qasim Al-Shabbi. Nature is an essential element that has played a significant part in Arabic Romantic poetry. Nature and Romanticism are synonyms with each other that we can not talk about Romanticism without talking about nature. Al-Shabbi took from it a refuge during hard times where he finds himself in dire need for lap away from the social injustice particularly when his country, Tunisia, was under the French colonialism. According to him, there is a spiritual unity and shared awareness between nature and a man. Al-Shabbi as an Arabic Romantic poet, nature has occupied a place and become an intellectual content in his poetry. He used different images of nature such as morning, evening, night, love and autumn to express his philosophy towards life and people.


Introduction
Romanticism is characterized by a sense of harmony between nature and man. To Romantics, it implied numerous things and offered itself as an artistic work, made by a holy imagination and in symbolic language. Romantics seriously stressed the importance of nature with its visual beauty of the country life-the place where they find their true identity. It became more idealized in which they took from nature a refuge away from the noisy life of the city.
Nature is described as a human spiritual regeneration that is destroyed by the formalities of the city. To him, love for nature implies love for humanity and a different view of the world that involved the concept of justice and freedom.
Nature is the favourite subject of all Romantics. They regarded it as a living personality that has given a mystical element to their lives. Nature reflects not only the poet's outer world but also the inner. It provides an entire and sufficient tangible proof to the soul. It embodies all fundamental motives, truths, and rules of conduct. "Nature, thus, in the Romantic view is not primarily a part of external or objective reality, but merely the outer or sense-form of the "inner" or spiritual reality. It is the inner being in terms of sense" (Schütze 59). It is the symbol of the soul that represents all the essential truths, levels of conduct and motives. Nature is the generous womb that grants poets the peace of mind and happiness in the heart.For Al-Shabbi, nature represents the refuge of his hopes and dreams. He sees in the images of nature an echo of his soul and the eternal tranquillity.
Abu Al-Qasim Al-Shabbi (1909-1934 is the greatest Tunisian poet and leader of Arab Romantic movement. He occupied a high place in modern Arabic poetry in twentieth-century.
He is known as the poet of green Tunisia, love and life. He was born in Tunisia in the village of SMART MOVES JOURNAL IJELLH e-ISSN: 2582-3574 p-ISSN: 2582-4406 VOL. 8, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2020 www.ijellh.com 67 Al-Shabbiya near Tauzer town. He received his basic education in Qabs town, then he was sent to Al-Zaituna mosque. He studied law at Tunisian Law School and became a lawyer but he never worked in the field of law. His wide reading and love for both English and Arabic literature sharpened his perception and led him to be a poet.He was influenced by the poetry of Al-Mahjar, Apollo and Al-Diwans. Although he practised poetry for short time, he wrote the finest Arabic poetry in the twentieth century. He was suffering from cardiovascular disease which was the key cause of his premature death at 25. Al-Shabbi's poetry represents all characteristics of Romanticism such as love for nature, the glorification of imagination, spontaneity of emotions and revolt against the standards of neoclassical poetry.

Images of Nature
Al-Shabbi is a part of nature and his poetry is one of its images. His poetry reflects the green forests of Tunisia, its oases, deserts and coasts. The melody of his poetry is the voices of Tunisian birds and whistling of its winds. He sees nature as a living being with a soul that we find sometimes static and sometimes terrible and stormy.It is also the friend of love and lovers, and the refuge of the tormented soul where it finds its rest and reassurance.Nature is the world that brings the Romantic poets back to the era of innocence and goodness away from the miserable reality of society.His aim for describing nature is to express himself. He believes in natural life because it provides a kind of happiness and reduces pains of life. Thus, he wants to connect nature's images with human suffering. Nature has many images in Al-Shabbi's poetry such as morning, evening, night, political rebellion, love and autumn. The next section will discuss them in details.
1. The Morning: The morning played a good role in Al-Shabbi's poetry. He wrote about the morning in many of his poems such as Dhikra Sabah "A Morning Remembrance", and Al-Sabah Al-Jadid "The New Morning". The features of morning appear in their most beautiful images in his poem Dhikra Sabah "A Morning Remembrance"."He pictures the countryside awakening in the morning, a magical, breathtaking vision, a worthy testimony to the glory of God. He cries ecstatically to his feelings to bind him to the holy beauty of this morning awakening, for in that bondage he will find artistic freedom" (Speight 183). He writes: God sanctified the memory of a magical morning in the shadow of a beautiful forest.
As the breeze was dancing drunk on the roses and the wet plant.
And the fog of the mountains flowed in a wonderful direction on the meadows of the plains.
And the songs of the Shepherds echo in the valleys, mountains, and hills. (Al-Shabbi 386) However, the feeling transcends the sensual image. The poet goes to describe his beautiful lover as she roams in a wonderful atmosphere. Thus, the poem describes the morning, the beautiful angel, and the poet's aspirations, dreams, and thoughts.In the same poem he writes: And the beautiful angel is between basil And grass and shady oaks In the poem, Min AghaniAlruea"From the Shepherds' Songs", "the poet describes the morning that comes slowly to awaken the life that still in its sleeping. The breezes move the dry leaves and make them dance when they receive the delegation of the morning that began to roam around life to be energized" (Al-Bitar 28). Here, the world woke up after the morning had breathed into it the spirit of life with the splendour of its light.The flower gives life its sweetness and aroma, the birds give it its rhythms, and the water gives it its freshness and survival.
The morning comes singing for sleepy life and hills dream in the shadow of swaying branches The dry leaves of flowers dance.
the light roared in those dark breaks. (qtd. in Al-Bitar 28).

The Evening:
Evening is another image of nature in the poetry of Al-Shabbi. He used it to express his sadness, depression and alienation. "Indeed, the evening expresses the end of the hard day, a moment to rest and lie down, a moment when family and friends gather, but his evening is full of sadness, sorrow and heartbreak" (Sabiha & Naima np). It is a source of dreams and the end of fatigue and struggles during the daytime."The evening comes to existence, shading it with its colour and kissing it, but it is the kiss of death for roses" ( Al-Bitar 29). Moreover, Speight comments,"In Al-Masa' Al-Hazin', 'The Sad Evening', the pastoral beauty of rural life settling for the night is set as a foil for the poet's hope, which alone is unable to find repose" (183).
The sad evening prevailed the existence and in his palm there is a piano that cannot be seen Romanticism built its philosophy on emotions and love of beauty. It shifted the focus from reason and logic to feelings and emotions. It gave absolute freedom to heart over mind.
Wordsworth defines poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions" (Manjoh 204). www.ijellh.com 75 traditional way that was previously common in using nature. Nature became a mean to portray the situation that his people were living in during the French occupation. He used different images of nature, such as morning, evening, night, autumn and love to translate his philosophy towards life and people. For him, nature is the perfection he dreams and the love and tenderness that he does not find in society.