For city poets, the streets are their canvas. While most of us only spend a few seconds of our day to take a quick glance at the streets, city poets translate every second of a glance into an emotion, a story, or a poetic symbol. Some view buildings , monuments and street corners as an extension of lives before them. Rather than view human relationships through just the sights and expressions of humans, they see the city as part of every human expression. Charles Dickens’ masterpiece, Oliver Twist, is just one example of how London — the main inspiration for his fiction — turns into a black hole for many of his characters. The city of London does not only serve as the backdrop to Oliver Twist’s struggles, but also, at times, constitutes his entire identity. Alexandria and Cairo are two of the most poetic cities, much like London and Paris. The poetic blood of these two cities carries a long list of extraordinary poets — among them is poet Cavafy. Born in 1863 in Alexandria to Greek parents, Constantine P. Cavafy, also known as Konstantinor Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis,…
The Poetic City of Alexandria Through the Poems of Constantine P. Cavafy
April 8, 2023
