Personification as a Descriptor of Inanimateness in Al-Sirri Al-Refaa’s Poems

Abstract

This paper explores personification as a descriptor of inanimate objects in selected poems of Al-Sirri Al-Refaa’, a Muslim medieval poet whose poems flourished in the Abbasid era. The selected poems under study have been found to have a naturalist approach where the themes and intentions are mixed to create personified imagery. In these poems, a vivid description of natural, silent, non-human, and inanimate objects is provided. Having been inspired by lively imaginations and physical visualization, Al-Refaa has been able to produce wonderful lines and rhymes. This paper, accordingly, analyzes beauty, nature, and visualization as literary aesthetic forms. To do so, linguistic and stylistic analysis is conducted on these poems in order to recognize intentions beyond these formations. Liveliness, intimateness, and beauty have been merged into a single poetic image where movement, sound, gesture, and sense stand for human-like manifestations