Thematic Analysis of Political Poems of Contemporary Iranian Poets (Sample Study: Four Constitutional Poets)

Subject Areas : علوم سیاسی

Mahdi  Ziaratban ¹ (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Islamic Azad University, Aliabad Katoul Branch, Aliabad Katoul, Iran)
Mahdi  Ziaratban ² (Assistant Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Islamic Azad University, Aliabad Katoul Branch, Aliabad Katoul, Iran)
GholamAli  Zare ³ (Associate Professor of Persian Language and Literature, Golestan University of Medical Sciences,)

Received: 2023-08-04 Accepted : 2023-08-04 Published : 2022-12-01

Keywords: Satirical poetry, Iraj Mirza, Mirzadeh Eshghi, Constitutionalism, Ali Akbar Dehkhoda, Seyed Ashrafuddin Gilani/Nasim Shomal,

Abstract :

In the Constitutional era, the situation in Iran changed the poetry language and expression to change compared to the previous era, i.e., so-called "literary return", leading poets to adopt appropriate formats and meters in order to convey the concepts and themes arising from the new era, such as homeland, law, justice, freedom, poverty, tyranny, and so on. The main catalyst for this change of approach was nothing but tyranny and socio-political repression. Certainly, the poet will not have freedom of expression in an environment where tyranny and oppression prevail, and he will not thus convey his thoughts to the audience through implicit and explicit language and expression. On the other hand, his task is to compose as he considers himself a mirror of the history of his time while recognizing the fact that as an artist, he has a social commitment. So, he has no choice but to resort to indirect language and expression or what is called "satire" to struggle with the evils, dysfunctions and crises facing the society. The authors sought in this article to explore the satirical poetry of four prominent poets of the Constitutional era, namely, Nasim Shomal, Iraj Mirza, Mirzadeh Eshghi and Ali Akbar Dehkhoda in order to analyze the most important themes of their satire from content point of view. The present study suggested the most evident "poetic satires" themes of these four poets are social, political and religious. These four poets have sought to convey their ideas to the people via a simple language, through appropriate formats and often lively meters, while at thee same time criticizing the rulers of the time by means of various satirical techniques by raising important issues regarding a constitutional society, in order that the oppressed people are awakened from their ignorance slumber.