Abdulwahhāb Al—Bayyāti was one of the triumvirate of poets who dominated modern Iraqi and Arabic poetry of the mid-1950s. Following the pioneer female poet Nazik Al-Mala'ika, he moved away from the tail-end of the romantic period of Arabic poetry, with its reliance on classical verse style. These modern poets introduced new subjects, both social and political, employing a more psychological approach. They used direct language, free from the traditional...