Authors: Sabbar Sultan & Khaled Al Najjar

The present paper attempts to shed some illuminating light on poetry and its position in the contemporary literary scene, following so many radical changes in the form and content of poetry. Metapoetry has become a recurrent topic that has its own supporters and adversaries. The article shows in the introduction the history of poetry and its long tradition of epics and narrative poetry. Also it shows how poetry in the twentieth century has some parallels with painting, and how the two arts constitute a reciprocal relationship. The main argument of the paper hinges on four writers from different parts of the world who share this interest in metapoetry, and what it can bring to the reader and author alike. The first writer chosen here is Ismail Kadar (Albanian) who is still alive and a French citizen. His poem. ' Poetry' is a typical one that belongs to metapoetry, as Kadare shows his surprise to enter willy-nilly this poetic maze. The second writer is the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. In 'Ars Poetica' (Art of Poetry). Neruda presents the squalor and bad things of reality as the background for the sublimating role of poetry. British poet and poet Laureate, Ted Hughes's' The Thought Fox' discusses the writer's block. Lebanese Shawqi Beze'a 'The Poet'' highlights the daily struggles of the poet in his strenuous efforts of pursuing the most appropriate terms and images in his poem. The conclusion sums up the main arguments of the paper.   

Keywords: Metapoetry, Kadare, Neruda, Hughes, Beze’a.

Sabbar Sultan, Professor Modern English Literature, Independent Researcher, Amman, Jordan. E mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Khaled Al Najjar, Assistant Professor, Teacher of Education & TESOL, Department of English Language & Literature, Isra University, Amman, Jordan. E mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.