Born in Jaykur, a village in southern Iraq, al-Sayyab — along with Nazik al-Mala'ika — broke with the inherited fixed meters of classical Arabic poetry in the late 1940s and helped launch the shi'r hurr (free verse) movement. His major poem Unshudat al-Matar (Hymn of the Rain, 1960) is the canonical text of modern Arabic poetry. He died young, of a long illness, in Kuwait in 1964.
Recurring themes
the village in southern Iraq
the river as metaphor
the breaking of the qasida meter
illness and political disillusion
Selected works
- 1947Withered Flowers
- 1960Songs of the Marsh
- 1962The Sunken Temple
- 1963House of the Slaves
- 1960Hymn of the Rain