Sufi poetry

Love is an universal subject in Sufi poetry. The poets believes that there is nothing but love exists at the beginning of the universe. According to Alcoran, Allah loves his people and vice versa. Allah is the first person who falls in love with his people. Sufism also believes that the one who behaves like the slavery of love is a very wise person. Therefore, the only valuable topic in Sufism is love. In Persian literature, the person who dies for love is always regarded as a hero. "Dies for love" is the only way makes a person immortal. Attar uses polo ball and cue to reflect the will of assimilation of two lovers. In "Montīq- at- tayr", Attar tells a love story between a ordinary person and king. The ordinary person is executed at the end because he is not willing to die for love.

Lauretta Oseni

I am trying to make up my posts so i am going to talk about my presentation and how i am preparing for it.
I like that we were given the freedom to pick any texts we liked in the beginning but as i kept doing my research and finding the texts i wanted to use, it then became a problem because there are so many texts i like and i want to put all of them in my presentation which is not possible. So i have to figure out which ones i like better than the other or which would have a greater impact on the reader.
I am a little confused/overwhelmed now but i am hoping to get it together and make a great world literature syllabus!

Sufi Poetry

The suffism poetry we read in class this past week was not only interesting but very inspiring. It was very touching and made me think about something outside of everyday life. How these people (Attar, Hafiz,Rumi) try to find God is very inspiring and shows a lot of dedication.
According to what was said in class, there are two types of love in suffism, sacred and profane. The sacred is love for God while the profane is earthly love (for a person). According to suffism, God is not a perfect being that is unreachable. To them it is possible to draw closer to God more fully in present life than in death. In suffism, you are not required to buy redemption but rather to achieve and find your path to God.
There are also certain symbols that have to be in a suffism poetry such as "flight", "wine", "birds", and these symbols were used to portray the main content of the poem.

Catullus Poetry

Catullus poetry is very different from the previous Sappho poetry we had read in class earlier. While Sappho poetry tended to be more reserved and proper, relying heavily on metaphors and similies to carry a message across, Catullus tended to be more direct and honest in his summations of various topics. He often used vulgar language and crude imagery to blast opponents in his writings. Another difference is that Catullus used poetry to attack a number of enemies and lambast friends who had appearently wronged him in some manner. I was not familiar with this sort of writing, especially one that had existed so long ago. The erotic poems obviously owe a debt to Sappho's writing, as they seem to have a fair amount in common with her while still retaining their own crude style and formation. Overall, Catullus poetry is an interesting look at a time when this sort of liberal writing was allowed, and clearly censorship had not developed in order to curtail the writer's ambitions.

Jenelle Fiori; Sufi Poetry

The Sufi poems we read for class were very interesting and easy to understand. Their main focus surrounds love and devotion of God. Each author talks about transforming their entire lives so that they could live up to the standards of God and be deserving of Him. For example, Attar is so intoxicated by his love for Gos that he writes about how to be deserving of God's love in return. Theses include the characteristic of not being greedy, hard working- as we owe God a debt-, brave and ready for death, and finally humble- as God is watching. If all of these are completed, then you can grow wings and fly away to God. Hafiz also talks about becoming a bird to fly to god. He talks of being a slave of love and until God is content and allows Hafiz to enter the glory heaven. Lastly, Rumi poem is a letter of God. He tells God that he searched a long time for a gift worthy of God's glory but could not find one good enough so he gave God a mirror to remind God that his love is full of ecstasy and endless. These three poems reflect the Arab religions in their devotion to God and are very interesting to see how people display their love.

Margaret Yoon: Sufi Poetry

I enjoyed reading Sufi poetry because all three poets, Attar, Hafiz of Shiraz, and Jelaluddin Rumi express the depths of spiritual life very lyrically. I felt like when they describe their relationship with God, or the path to achieving reunion with God, it could almost seem like a “profane” or wordly relationship with another human being if taken out of context. They employ passionate tones that express their desire for complete oneness with God. Sufi poetry has had great influence on world literature, such as Goethe. He published his West-ostlicher Divan, a collection of lyric poems inspired by a German translation of Hafiz. American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson admired Persian poetry as well and published many essays that discuss it: Letters and Social Aims, From the Persian of Hafiz. A question I have for the Sufi poets is: How do you realize your purpose in the beginning? What made you desire this reunion with God-what was the stimulation?

Cattullus

I thought that the Cattullus poems were very interesting and well written. I rally liked how direct and explicit they were. I also found them really sad and depressing when Cattulles thought Lesbia was unfaithful. Compared to most poetry i thought this was very good and interesting escpeially becouse it was areal relationship.