Investigation of Classicism Imagery Principles in Ibrahim-Naji's Poems

Imagery, a manifestation of poet’s elevated thoughts, occurs when he departs from common language and presents his inner perceptions in a poetic manner. In traditional rhetoric, poetic images are based on five principles, harmony, imitation, clarity, verisimilitude, and the opposition between form and meaning. These principles contrive artistic processing in the poetic images of classical poets. The present study seeks to investigate image rhetoric in the poems of Ibrahim-Naji (1898-1953), a contemporary Egyptian poet, using an analytical-descriptive method. The results indicate that he, with the help of simile, metaphor, and trope, creates images harmonizing his inner mood and what he depicts on the outside. Meanwhile, most of these images are presented through imitating the antecedents. To achieve this, the poet, in addition to preferring form to meaning, has applied clear and lucid expressions which are in concordance with the principle of verisimilitude.