| Abstract: | From earlier manuscripts, mostly in Arabic script, the author identifies different types of verse-form. The formal quatrain is shown to have been the most popular form when Swahili poetry was at its best, in the middle and second half of the last century. Examples are provided of what were probably much older verse-forms, especially long-measure verse, one from the earliest extant Swahili manuscript poem, Umm al Qura, by Sayid AIDARUS, written in A.D. 1749. Partly due to the scarcity of early manuscripts and subsequent ignorance of the earlier manner, modern Swahiii poets do not all observe the canons of traditional verse, nor do they experiment in so wide a field as the earlier writers. |
AfricaBib 
Periodical article
Leiden University catalogue
WorldCat
