A textual anatomy of a poem: James elroy flecker’s ‘War song of the Saracens’ and the poetry of Antara Ibn Shaddad

Abstract

In treating James Elroy Flecker’s ‘War Song of the Saracens’ as an example of Gerard Genette’s transtextuality, this article argues that Flecker’s poem is not only influenced by but actually derived from the poetry of Antara Ibn Shaddad. The article investigates the paratextual and hypertextual aspects of Flecker’s poem in order to show how this poem is, to a great extent, a medley of Ibn Shaddad’s phraseology and imagery. In addition, this article argues that Flecker, without acknowledgement, consciously draws on the poetry of Ibn Shaddad.