Autobiographical Romantism in Amiri Firoozkoohys Poetry.

Romanticism is a literary school gaining ground in the late 18th century, the period between Classicism and Realism schools’ dominance. This school was a reaction to Industrial revolution or Renaissance disappearance. “It’s not only a literary school, but also a universal movement in different areas like literature, philosophy, social and political sciences, architecture, music, painting, cinema, etc.” (Jafari, 1999, p. 1).
Romantic and Romanticism have a complicated but interesting origins. Romantic “is an adjective made from the word “Roman”, taken from words “Romano” or “Romi”, primarily referring to a story which is written in various European vernacular languages in a novel way without following any classic principles” (Seyed-hosseini, 2002, Vol.: 1, p. 163).
“In the late 18th century, France, England and Germany were the first countries started to adopt Romanticism after Classicism, engaging literature and art with myths, imaginations and poetic feelings instead of old norms and conventions” (Razi-zadeh, 2011).
Freedom, individualism, desertion and travel, contemplation and intuition, verbal magic, unity with nature, rejection of rationalism, emphasis on imagination and feeling, nostalgia, death, love, folklore, religion, patriotism and romantic illustration are among the key themes focused by Romanticism. However; their usage and interpretation may vary from different perspectives.
Since Romanticism has not addressed one particular class but all the public, “it has become popular in all countries despite of Classicism” (Shamisa, 1993, p. 65). It then expanded to other countries, influencing on different areas. Iran is one of the countries influenced by Romanticism. Parviz Natel Khanlari, Golchin Gilani and Fereydoun Tavaloli, who were under influence of Nimaic poetry, are pioneer romantic poets of Iran (Taslimi, 2004, p. 19). “Romanticism has brought to the modern world the fact that each human being has its own specific identity. Individualism in Romanticism does not rely on rationality which is a general and public phenomena. It relies on the exclusive inner self of individual which can be distinguished from others” (Jafari, 1999, p. 19).
As Romanticism highlights the public, ordinary people and individualism, poets reflect their self and life in their poems.
Autobiography, referred to as self-written account, biography, etc., is a literary genre which has recently been emphasized in Iran. “Autobiography is consisted of the words “auto”, meaning self and “biography”, meaning one’s life story and it has various translations and equivalents like personal life story, self-written account, self-life account, life story, etc. in Persian language” (Anousheh, 1997, p. 763). “Self-life account refers to the writings describing author’s mental state and life setting” (Meghdadi, 1999, p. 278).
Autobiography or self-written account is one of the literary genres in which it is private, however; some poets and authors has honestly narrated their private life. Autobiography is often seen in writings, however; there are some poets who use it in their poems. Amiri Firuzkuhi is one of the poets who places an emphasis on autobiography in his poems.
Seyed Karim Amiri Firuzkuhi (1909-1984) is a contemporary Iranian poet. He is a poem who has talked about his life in his poems. His poems are autobiographic poems with romantic themes. He becomes popular for the simple language and subtle nature reflected in his poems. He is mainly depicting his life events, which are mostly romantic. In other words, he illustrates his life in a real and imaginary way. Therefore, the present article aims at studying poems of Amiri Firuzkuhi with regard to romanticism and autobiography reflected in his poetry. Romanticism elements and features are hence explored and analyzed in his poems. This study is a descriptive-analytic study based on the data collected from library resources, related documents and articles, internet, etc. Amiri began composing since he was a teenager. “As he was influenced by Indian genre poets especially Saib Tabrizi, his poems were acquainted with the subtleties and thematic expressions” (Badragheh, 2013, p. 2) and he became an adherent of Indian genre thereby. “Indian genre represents life events and routine experiences… Amiri’s poems are also reflecting everyday experiences, conveying various themes through this style” (Kardgar, 1994, p. 37). Words like death, senescence, despair, sorrow, etc. are widely used in his poems. He stated that he suffered from different diseases during his lifetime. “His poetry is surrounded with grievance and whimper. He speaks of transient and unstable lifetime, individual failure and poetic pain and suffering” (Yahaghi, 1999, p. 12). “The reason of repeating such themes in his poetry certainly stem from his physical condition and continuous disease” (Hossein Pourchafi, 2008, p. 102). He composed poems in different forms and his poems are mostly depicting his personal and artistic life. In other words, he is portraying his romantic autobiography representing all of his emotions including pain, sorrow, sadness, despair, etc. Romanticism themes like emotionalism, naturalism, nostalgia, tendency to travelling, etc. are widely seen in his autobiographic poems. Furthermore, his autobiographic poems are embraced with romantic images. Key romantic themes in Amiri’s autobiographic poems are: death, nostalgia, love, religion, desertion and travel, feelings and emotions and naturalism.
He always focuses on individualism in his poems. However; he has not ignored his society and composed several poems criticizing modern urban life while indicating that he is reluctant about technology and misses simplicity.
He blends Romanticism themes with his autobiographic poems in order to depict what’s on his mind in a romantic way. His poems are a blend of reality and feeling. His poems represent a real feeling and he links reality and feeling through use of image and metaphor. His images builds a bridge between his real and imaginary life (just like other romantic poets).
He always portrays images belonged to a past place and time, describing them with regret, just like romantic images pertaining to a dark and shadowy setting.
His metaphors indicate his feelings, representing what he feels about himself. He is so obsessed with his personal emotions that sees all the nature and objects in the same boat with himself.