Abstract

In this paper, we shall focus on the characteristics of the rhythm in female poetry through Alkhansa’s poem as a case study. We have theoretically defined this term through referring to ancient and modern philosophers and critics who have tackled this issue both in the Arab and Western world. Then, we have selected a few studies that we consider useful. We have selectively introduced the poetess in a way that serves our objectives by scrutinising critics ‘view of her and their focus on her areas of excellence. Practically, we have examined the potential of the prosody approach, deeply entrenched in the model paradigm, to get the better of rhythm. Ellipsis and substitution allowed for some rhythmic variety. Grammar and rhetoric seem to have built a various rhythm, which reinforces the rhythmic paradigm. This has given us the impression that the distinctiveness of the rhythm of parallelism in Alkhansa’s poetry has set her on top of a highly masculine school. We can safely advocate the masculinity of women and their good mastery of the model rhythm and their ability to deconstruct and enrich it by recurring to rhyming and oscillating between rising and falling tones on the one hand and various rhythms which combine strength and weakness and gain a deeper meaning from the use of metonymy. It seems that the oscillation between composition and discourse has revealed a link between rhythm and the speaker’s state of mind whether it is calm or tense.