qasida
- noun
- /kɑːˈsiːdə/
- Literature
- In traditional literature, a qasida often serves to praise great leaders and heroes.
Examples
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" Committed to an ethos of tribal survival, the poet, or sha'ir ("knower"), celebrated in the qasida "the infinite language of the deserts," which was constantly under threat.
Academic text (2010) -
The classic collection of seven qasidas (al-Mu'allaqat al-sab al-tiwal) offers an arguably reliable sample of pre-Islamic work.
Academic text (2003) -
What modern texts might fit into the overall structure of the qasida?
Academic text (2010) -
The affinities of the former text with the qasida may be more suggestive than formal, in keeping with the poet's own strictures.
Academic text (2010) -
All three worked in an oral tradition, and in Old English, the alliterative line, with its sharp mid-line caesura, is strikingly similar to the two hemistichs forming the qasida's basic metrical unit.
Academic text (2010) -
Suzanne Stetkevych states that "modern critics from both the East and West have yet to formulate a poetics through which to analyze and evaluate (n15)" pre-Islamic qasida poetry.
Academic text (2003) -
By both repetition and austere minimalism, Yusuf creates what he later calls al-qasida al-mutaqashifa, that is, the ascetic poem (Yusuf, "Letter," 1994).
Academic text (1997) -
Then came Schimmel's own qasidas, wild and free, "forward-urging" as their Arabian counterparts, yet manifestly triangulated and rethought in the idiom and currency of the present.
Academic text (2010) -
The poet composed a stunning qasida to honor the beauty of the desert landscape.
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During the festival, several artists recited their heartfelt qasidas to celebrate their heritage.
How Formal
Surface Forms
Etymology
Qasida comes from the Arabic word qasīda and from the root q-s-d meaning 'to aim' or 'to intend'. A helpful way to remember it is to think of a qasida as a formal 'ode' carefully aimed to praise, mourn, or criticize someone, which is why it is a long poem with a clear purpose.