Analysis of Lyric Modes in Love Stories: A Case Study on Khosrow & Shirin and Leli & Majnoon

Owing to the fact that lyric poetry is regarded as a short, non-narrative poetry that expresses emotions, there rises the question of how long a story could be to be categorized under the lyric genre. Analyzing love stories from the viewpoint of genre, it is revealed that in stories in which love affairs are more important for the poet than the narration itself, different modes of expression take the place of narration, and hence, such modes as adoration, elegy, rhapsody, complain, and compliment almost always cause the narration to be halted, and, accordingly, make the poem take a lyric appearance. In this article, analyzing Khosrow & Shirin and Leli & Majnoon, the researcher shows how different modes of the poet’s emotions, as well as those of the characters, are foregrounded. As a consequence, in these stories, the reader faces the description of different aspects of emotions rather than narrative suspension. Thus, it is recommended that the term lyric be used not as a subcategory of mode but a genre in such stories