This study offers a comparative reading of selected works by Badr Shakir al-Sayyab, examining two classical poems—“I Broke a Chain of Shackles” and “Hurricanes”—and two free verse poems—“A Poem to the Rebellious Iraq” and “A City Without Rain.” The aim is to uncover the role of poetic structure in representing social and human concerns and broader cultural transformations. The study adopts a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework, focusing on the linguistic structure, metaphorical imagery, and lexical configurations in al-Sayyab’s poetry across both classical and free verse forms. The analysis operates on three levels: the textual level, the level of discursive practice, and the level of social practice.



The findings demonstrate that the classical form, with its metrical and rhyming constraints, while endowing the poem with epic solidity and symbolic force, often restricts the direct articulation of lived experience and the concrete realities of individuals during periods of social crisis. It tends to compel the poet toward generalization and the selection of abstract or grand, totalizing metaphors. By contrast, free verse—characterized by structural flexibility, variation in line length, and openness in linguistic choices—enables a more precise and dynamic representation of everyday life, suffering, hope, and collective experience. Within this form, al-Sayyab is able to present tangible images of nature, society, and social processes in a direct and multilayered manner. This is evident in the image of the melting ice of economic corruption or the withering and revival of branches in “A Poem to the Rebellious Iraq,” as well as in the depiction of water scarcity and drought in “A City Without Rain.”



The comparison between the two poetic forms reveals that al-Sayyab’s transition from classical poetry to free verse was not