The Picture of the Elderly in Their Own Poetry: A Study in Classical Arabic Poetry
Ismael Algayam, Assistant Professor - Philadelphia University.
Abstract
This research tries to investigate the picture of elderly in classical Arabic poetry as they themselves see it and picture it in their poetry.
The researcher tackled this issue to determine the features of this picture in clarifying the issue of aging in the Arab heritage, and the exaggerations associated with the ages of some people.
This research paper studied and analyzed the elderly own poems describing this stage of the human life span.
The research classified these poems into two categories, namely, the physical facet, which deals with illnesses and diseases afflicting the human body as well as mental disorder and recalcitrant children and lack of care they might show to the elderly.
The other facet is the psychological one which is represented by the psychological effects befalling the elderly as a result of a number of factors such as alienation and estrangement.
The more physical suffering is inflected on the elderly, the deeper the psychological hurt and the more evident the picture is rereflected at this stage.