Martyrdom stories in the Syriac and British poetical traditions and heritage

Abstract EN

This paper examines the concept of Martyrdom as a global issue.

Poetry is used to transmit and vend stories of very early Christian martyrs from 2nd and 4th Centuries.

Also, it expects to reveal similarities and differences beside incarnating two various poetical traditions.

This work is divided into four sections .

The first section is an endeavor to clarify the concept of martyrdom as well as conceding a short historical introduction for the two poets’ background.

The second part underscores an exhaustive investigation for the two poems which are: "Habib the Edessan Martyr" of Jacob of Sargu and John Dryden’s poem "A Song for St.

Cecilia's Day" respectively.

While, the third one tackles the techniques utilized by the two poets in their poems in order to immortalize and canonize the two martyrs who paid their lives as a ransom for their belief and faith.

Finally, the last part deals with the findings of this study, determining if there are any similarity or difference in these two poems of this current study.