This study deals with the most radical of the badīʿ ("novel") poets of the ʿAbbāsid period, Abū Tammām. After a critique of classical badīʿ theory it proposes a redefinition of the new poetry as an exegetical metapoesis and on that basis provides analyses, accompanied by original translations, of five of Abū Tammām's most celebrated political odes and of extensive selections from his renowned anthology, the Ḥamāsah.