Mahmoud Darwish was a Palestinian poet and author who was regarded as Palestine's national poet.
Darwish at Bethlehem University (2006)
Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian National Poet, Pen and Ink Portrait by Amitabh Mitra
Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Darwish & George Habash (pictured in 1980)
Mahmoud Darwish Portrait.
A national poet or national bard is a poet held by tradition and popular acclaim to represent the identity, beliefs and principles of a particular national culture. The national poet as culture hero is a long-standing symbol, to be distinguished from successive holders of a bureaucratically-appointed poet-laureate office. The idea and honoring of national poets emerged primarily during Romanticism, as a figure that helped consolidation of the nation states, as it provided validation of their ethno-linguistic groups.
Walt Whitman, often described as the United States' national poet
Du Fu
Ferdowsi
Rabindranath Tagore