Reading Arabic Poetry Ecocritically: Methodological Reflections with a Case Study on Badr Shākir al-Sayyāb

This article examines how ecocritical approaches can shed light on modern Arabic poetry, while remaining attentive to historical specificity and local epistemologies. After outlining key ecological motifs in the classical tradition, from desert ruins and pastoral longing to Andalusi gardens, the study adopts Kate Rigby’s ecopoetic framework to map contemplative, prophetic, and decolonial modes within Arabic literary modernity. A case study on Badr Shākir al-Sayyāb demonstrates how nature in his work functions as an active site of political and affective meaning. Through the symbolism of rain, drought, and cyclical renewal in Unshūdat al-Maṭar and Madīna bilā Maṭar, al-Sayyāb articulates a poetics where environmental and national wounds are intertwined. The article argues that his verse anticipates a distinctly Arabic ecopoetic sensibility rooted in memory, dispossession, and the hope for renewal.