e of
these verses go back to the fourth and fifth centuries of our era. But a
growing sense of the poet's art was incompatible with so simple a
measure; and a hundred years before the appearance of the Prophet, many
of the canonical sixteen metres were already in vogue. Even the later
complete poems bear the stamp of their origin, in the loose connection
with which the different parts stand to each other. The "Kasidah" (poem)
is built upon the principle that each verse must be complete in
itself,--there being no stanzas,--and separable from the context; which
has made interpolations and omissions in the older poems a matter
of ease.

The classical period of Arabic poetry, which reaches from the beginning
of the sixth century to the beginning of the eighth, is dominated by
this form of the Kasidah. Tradition refers its origin to one al-Muhalhel
ibn Rabi'a of the tribe of Taghlib, about one hundred and fifty years
before Muhammad; though, as is usual, this honor is not uncontested. The
Kasidah is composed of distichs, the first two of which only are to
rhyme; though every line must end in the same syllable. It must have at
least seven or ten verses, and may reach up to one hundred or over. In
nearly every case it deals with a tribe or a single person,--the poet
himself or a friend,--and may be either a panegyric, a satire, an elegy,
or a eulogy. That which it is the aim of the poet to bring out comes
last; the greater part of the poem being of the nature of a _captatio
benevolentia_. Here he can show his full power of expression. He usually
commences with the description of a deserted camping-ground, where he
sees the traces of his beloved. He then adds the erotic part, and
describes at length his deeds of valor in the chase or in war; in order,
then, to lead over to the real object he has in view. Because of this
disposition of the material, which is used by the greater poets of this
time, the general form of the Kasidah became in a measure stereotyped.
No poem was considered perfect unless molded in this form.

Arabic poetry is thus entirely lyrical. There was too little, among
these tribes, of the common national life which forms the basis for the
Epos. The Semitic genius is too subjective, and has never gotten beyond
the first rude attempts at dramatic composition. Even in its lyrics,
Arabic poetry is still more subjective than the Hebrew of the Bible. It
falls generally into the form of an allocution, even where it