News at Eleven: Should a poet employ poetry to serve

a political purpose? Or should the poet revolutionise his own poem, regardless of the subject that it deals with?'

Nasser [Farghaly] outlined a spectrum for me: at one end are colloquial lyrics that are made for protest, and on the other, a more academic, often classical-Arabic poetry that aims to create a revolution within the borders of the poem. The latter believe that their authority extends to the outer reaches of the poem only, thus this is the only thing they can attempt to revolutionise.

from Granta: Poetry and the Arab Spring

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