A Comparative Analysis of Ahmed Sahnoun and Mohammad Taqi Bahar’s Prison Poems

Prison literature is one of the branches of lyric literature. The contents of prison literature, which is generally written in verse, include complaints about cruelty, bitterness of times, suffering separation from family, country, and loved ones, tightness and darkness of prison cells, prison guards’ mistreatment, and expression of innocence and disappointment with the future. Employing a descriptive-analytic approach based on library research method of gathering data, this study analyzes and compares prison poems of two contemporary Arab and Iranian poets, namely Ahmed Sahnoun and Mohammad-Taqi Bahar. In addition to religious and cultural similarities, they spent a part of their lives in prison due to political activities and wrote some prison poems. Sahnoun’scollection Hesad al-Sajn includes twenty-seven prison poems and Bahar’s Prison Report includes twenty-eight. Both of these works are considered as valuable documents of their lifetime. The findings of this  comparative research, which is done in order to introduce and reveal some hidden parts of the literature of the countries of Algeria and Iran, indicate the similarity of the prison poems of these poets as they both, in terms of content, discuss common topics such as describing the atmosphere of prison, expression of innocence, complaining about time, asking for patience, and remembering friends, and, in terms of style, adopt common features including comic and symbolic language, usage of traditional poetic meters, and allusion to Koranic verses and Hadith. The main difference between the poems is their attitude toward imprisonment conditions. Bahar depicts the physical atmosphere of prison more precisely and sometimes uses vulgar words, indicating the intensity of his grief and anger and finally tries to set himself free by writing an apology. On the contrary, while expressing his innocence and grief for imprisonment, Sahnoun asks himself to have more patience and never turns to writing an apology or using vulgar language.