Rhetorical Aspects in Mohtasham Kashani Elegy

Various imageries in every language and period show the principal background of poems. The poet tries any type of poetry by applying descriptive and figurative language according to his intended theme. One of the main poetic themes is elegy composed in mourning of relatives or Imams specially Imam Hussein and his companions. Mohtahsam Kashani is the most famous Shiite poet in composing elegy during Safavid's who created a new style in composing religious poems that was imitated by other poets after him. The topic of this paper is the analyzing and describing of the imageries and rhetorical aspects in Mohtasham elegy to explain the reason of its being effective and long lasting. The result of this study indicates considerable amount of imagery technics in Mohtasham elegy so that no verse is found free from them. Amongst them metaphor, simile, trope, kenning and incarnation respectively are applied to highlight the images. It seems that except for theme, the usage of such images as metaphor and similes is the main reason of fame and affectivity in Mohtasham poetry.