Several modern critics have described the poetry of the Abbasid age as "secondary", "mannerist", and "exegetical" in recognition of its detachment from and its critical concern with the model it sprang from. In this paper I suggest using the adjective meta-poetic to describe the overall attitude of the Abbasid qasida towards its archetypal pre-Islamic model. Meta-poetic in this context indicates a detachment and consciousness that are determining characteristics of this later qasida particularly in the way in which the archetypal motifs and devices are featured in it. The cultural milieu of the period and the debates and issues that surrounded Abbasid poetry necessarily influenced poets and their creative processes. Abbasid poets wrote for an ideal reader/critic not only qualified to appreciate their innovations but also capable of placing their contributions in the continuum of the tradition they were writing against. This was bound to bring the relationship with the literary past to the forefront of the poet's concerns. Thus, poets were always aware of writing against or in perpetuation of an already established form. The consciousness which is necessarily involved in every creative act and especially poetry is therefore sharply heightened. This paper explores the definition of the term meta-poetic in its application to the poetry of the Abbasid age focusing on sample qita' (short poetic compositions) in which poets explicitly voice their critical opinions on poetry.