A Study Guide for Saadi Youssef's "America, America"

America, America

Saadi Youssef

2002

Introduction

Published in 2002 in Without an Alphabet, Without a Face, Saadi Youssef's poem America, America is a complex work driven by imagery and emotion. It was originally written in 1995 to describe the life of the Iraqi people as their country endured United Nations-led sanctions. The poem describes war and politics, but at a human level. Youssef's voice in the work is that of the common Iraqi man or woman rendered powerless to change the nation's current regime or the world's reaction to it.

The dominant themes of America, America are war, struggle, cultural identity, and the individual's experience in history. The style is free verse featuring a steady flow of images. Like most of Youssef's poetry, it is personal and based on experience. As of the poem's writing, Youssef had been creating verse for four decades. This work reflects his maturity as a poet and his broad experience in the world.

Author Biography

Saadi Youssef was born in 1934 in Abulkhasib, near Basra, Iraq. He began writing poetry at the age of seventeen. By then, young writers had begun to write free verse in Arabic, breaking with tradition and bringing modernity to Arabic poetry. After Youssef joined this movement, he became one of the most celebrated and prolific Arabic poets of the modern age. He attended school in Basra and Baghdad, earning a degree in Arabic from Baghdad University, before beginning his career as an educator and journalist. Meanwhile, he continued to write poetry and to develop his style