Death in the Poetry of John Keats and Abu Al-Qasem Al-Shabbi: A Comparative Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35516/Hum.2026.10597Keywords:
John Keats, Abu Al-Qasem Al-Shabbi, death, Romantic poetryAbstract
Objectives: This study investigates the concept of death in the poetry of John Keats and Abu Al-Qasem Al-Shabbi, two Romantic poets representing English and Arabic literary traditions. While poets across cultures have long engaged with the theme of death, Romantics, in particular, often viewed it as a form of solace from life's sorrows.
Methods: The study adopts descriptive, analytical, and American comparative approaches to examine and contrast the poetic styles and psychological contexts of the two poets.
Results: The findings reveal that death profoundly shaped both poets' worldviews, as reflected in Keats’s odes and Al-Shabbi’s Aghani Al-Hayat (Songs of Life). Their works are rich with themes of grief, mortality, melancholy, and existential reflection. The study finds striking parallels between the two poets, suggesting that Al-Shabbi can be viewed as the "Keats of the Arabs." Keats’s experience of familial loss and declining health echoes Al-Shabbi’s suffering due to the deaths of loved ones and his own tragic illness.
Conclusions: Keats and Al-Shabbi perceived death as a form of transcendence or liberation, embracing it as a release from the hardships of life. For both poets, death emerged not as an end, but as a symbolic extension of life.
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