His literary works consisted of two dozen volumes of poetry and regular articles in the Arabic-language newspaper Al Hayat.  Qabbani was revered by generations of Arabs for his sensual and romantic verse where it seemed that women were his main theme and inspiration.  His poetry uses everyday language. Gamal el-Ghitanti, the Egyptian novelist and editor of the weekly News of Literature, praised Qabbani as having been "by any measure a great Arab poet who made a big effort to make his poetry understandable to all people and not only to the elite."
     The Egyptian novelist Mona Helmi said, "His greatness came from his ability to put into beautiful words not only the ordinary actions between men and women, but also between the ruler and ruled and the oppressor and the oppressed."
     Qabbani published his first poem, "The Brunette had Told Me," in 1944, a year before he graduated with a law degree from the University of Damascus. The Syrian capital remained a powerful presence in his poems, most notably in "The Jasmine Scent of Damascus."  In his later years, Qabbani's poems included a strong strain of antiauthoritarianism.  One couplet in particular--"O Sultan, my master, if my clothes are ripped and torn it is because your dogs with claws are allowed to tear me" -- is often quoted by Arabs as a kind of shorthand for their frustration of life under dictatorship.  Still, Qabbani never explicitly criticized his native country or its long-reigning leader, President Hafez, al-Assad, and that allowed him to be hailed across Syria as a national hero. (National/Metro.)
     The criticism of the Arab leadership in poems written after the June defeat in 1967 (when the Arabs lost the war against Israel) was evident through Nizar Qabbani's poem Marginal Notes in the Book of the Setback.  The June setback circumscribes Qabbani's shift from love themes to political ones dealing mainly with the Arab-Israeli conflict.  Since the beginning of his career and up to the 1967 war, only few poems with sociopolitical themes were written by the poet.
     Qabbani believed the defeat was a shameful event and blames the Arab rulers through his poetry by saying that they have denied the Arab people any chance of expressing their opinions freely and acting as a spontaneous body in a free society.  It is considered one of the most important that Qabbani ever wrote.  This poem caused a great deal of controversy in Arab literary circles.
     Some critics said that Qabbani being "a poet on erotic themes who has devoted all his poetry to women and love is unqualified to write about national themes", also, Qabbani, more than any other writer or poet, "should be blamed because of his sensuous poetry which has affected the new generation badly and spoilt their morals",  Qabbani is no more than a "sadist who finds pleasure in whipping the Arab nation while she is bleeding because of the defeat", and by "dancing over the wounds of his people", the poet, by writing thus aims at "killing any remnant of determination or hope that amy still exist among the Arabs" - in this way he is "serving the enemy who wishes to see the Arabs in complete despair".
     The evident anger towards Qabbani reached its peak when Egyptian writers incited a campaign against him.  They attempted to have the authorities ban his works and the poet himself from entering Egypt.  In defense, Qabbani wrote to the President Nasser about the situation and was able to have all the restrictions lifted.
     The "Sultan" a poem by Qabbani, is an example of political verse that denotes Arab rulersand blames them for losing the wars because the people are unable to express their opinions:

If I were promised safety,
if I could meet the Sultan
I would say to him:  O my lord the Sultan!
my cloak has been torn by your ravenous dogs,
your spies are following me all the time.
Their eyes
their noses
their feet are chasing me
like destiny, like fate
They interrogate my wife
and write down all the names of my friends.
O Sultan!
Because I dare to approach your deaf walls,
because I tried to reveal my sadness and
tribulation,
I was beaten with my shoes.
O my lord the Sultan!
you have lost the war twice
because half our people
has no tongue

source:  nizar.net