Comparison of Al-Ghuds and Haifa in the Poetry of Samih Al-Ghasem; a Semantic Investigation of his Collection of Poetry

The city is an open area whose repeating linguistic characteristics contribute to creating meaning and expanding contemporary poetic images. With its diverse functions, the city displays a true image of man’s life and identity, generally defines the human self, and characterizes its link with the internal and external challenges of the motherland. Samih Al-Ghasem attached great significance to the cities of Al-Ghuds and Haifa and believed the two cities had a specific linguistic position because the two, in his poetry, embrace various images and perspectives which describe the reality trend of life, as being occupied by the Zionists, and show the poet’s emotional equilibrium with the sensitive events that unfold inside their borders, thereby forming a spirit of resistance and national concerns towards them. The research has selected two occupied cities of Haifa and Al-Ghuds from among various cities that Samih Al-Ghasem has intended in his poetry. The research also uses a descriptive-analytical approach to compare the most important cognitive concepts those two cities have in common. Thus, a summary of research results suggests that the comparison of the two cities in the poetry of Samih Al-Ghasem reveals specific and general features. The general features indicate common cognitive relations between the two cities that can be divided into three subjects of addressing tragic scenes of children, displaying concerns for originality and identity, and the crisis of negligence and indifference to current developments. However, its specific features include the partial realist description of scenes of destruction of Al-Ghuds and displacement of its residents, in addition to optimistic and pessimistic perspectives of the current status; meantime, as for Haifa, the poet mostly looks to the Israeli’s hostile measures, describing them with the ugliest attributes.This research uses a descriptive-analytical method to answer the following three questions: What is the position of Al-Ghuds and Haifa in the poetry of Samih Al-Ghasem in terms of the way words effectively contribute to diverse themes?Given the examples, how would Samih Al-Ghasem describe the cognitive dimensions of Al-Ghuds and Haifa? andHow are the two cities' most notable and common conceptual contexts described by Samih Al-Ghasem from a functional perspective?While recalling the cities in contemporary Palestinian Poetry, it has dedicated a special place to the use of vocabulary and symbols through it that identifies further affiliations and desires of the poet and reflects social and inherent concerns and anxieties of the poet; since the cities in Palestinian poetry became the dramatic scene where the essence of images, themes and new literary codes in the furnace of events are revealed that in  contemporary critical study based on sign processes and indications. Therefore, Palestinian cities for their great poets such as Samih al-Qasim, are considered as a gift and good source in order to draw new images and add aesthetic background in his idea of resistance in such a way that their major use of the vocabulary suggests the inspiring East where the nature and national identity of a poet, while realistic view and emotional stances, are tied together. Our study was focused on the cities that Samih al-Qasim’s poetry has paid attention. The current study has chosen two cities of Jerusalem and Haifa on a selective basis. Although the overall theme of poems places these cities among the common National and patriotic issues, each of them has a unique innovative signs than the other that can be distinguished. One of the instances is the painful realistic feature appeared most in Jerusalem, and the other is the ethical signs dedicated to city of Haifa while optimistic and pessimistic view to the city of Haifa. Therefore, this study aims to analyze call of Jerusalem and Haifa in both Samih Al-Qasim's poetry in terms of statistics and content to show hidden images and indication based on the descriptive - analytical method for analysis of literary text and to decode the signs and indications.