A Comparative Study of Political Nostalgia in the Poetry of Malek-o Shoara Bahar and Jamil Sedghy Zahawy

Regrets for the sweet past and its contrast with the present is called "Nostalgia". This old pain that started with the fall of Adam has been the theme of many literary works from old times. Bahar and Zahawy, the two nationalist contemporary poets of Iran and Iraq who did not like the tyranny and oppression of the rulers of their times and had suffered from exile, prison, deprivation of rights etc. have composed a lot of poems for each of the mentioned occasions. This is a comparative study of the political nostalgia and its origin in the poems of Bahar and Zahawy. The result shows the very near resemblances in the social-political ideas of the two poets. However, Bahar's presence in the political scene and his different occupations as the Minister of Culture and a member of the parliament, and also his extensive knowledge of history and literature as an outstanding scholar and university professor makes his political nostalgia more comprehensive than that of Zahawy’s.