Vertical Axis of Imagination in Nāsir Khusraw's Qasidas

Throughout the history of Persian poetry، qasida has had an imitative and steady form. Such a characteristic has played a key role in the weakness of the vertical axis of this form of poetry and has always caused poet''s imagination to move in a single direction. Furthermore، this form of poetry is frequently associated with a predetermined chain of images. But Nāsir Khusraw''s (1004-1088 CE) attempts in introducing changes into the vertical axis of qasida are innovative; the patterns he had presented for the structure of qasida are varied and unique. In this essay، all Nāsir Khusraw ''s qasidas are compared in terms of structure with those of his three contemporaries: Onsori (? -1040 CE)، Farrokhi (? -1038 CE) and Manoochehri (? -1041 CE). Finally، the study focuses on certain characteristic features of Nāsir Khusraw''s qasidas such as lengthy description، allegory، personification، frequency of key words throughout the poem and the cohesion of verses by the conjunctions resulting in the stability of vertical axis of his poetry. Such features are less common in the contemporary poetry.