Comparative analysis of a sonnet from ʽĀlemi of Dārābjerd with a sonnet from Saʽdī based on formalistic criticism

Exploring literary texts and critiques of such works has been always a subject of literary criticism. Formalism that from now on referred to as 'new criticism' emerged in 20 century. The literary texts analysis in this school was done solely through form and structure based on linguistics. The authors of this paper intend to study and present a sonnet of Sa'adi (deceased in ah 690) as well as a sonnet of Mirza Sohrab of Darabjerdi with the pen name of ʽĀlemi (deceased in ah 975), from formalist criticism viewpoint in an analytic-descriptive method. After studying both sonnets and sources associated with formalist criticism, they concluded that the vocabulary used with negative connotation, music (exterior, lateral, and internal) as well as rhetorical figures and figures of speech in the two texts has significant role in conveying the meaning and content proposed by Sa'adi and ʽĀlemi. ʽĀlemi of Darabjerd considered Sa'adi's style and language in his sonnets and has been successful in inducing his intended meaning of distress (hozn and andooh) from the sepration (hijrān), that is well influenced from the form and structure of Sa'adi's sonnets.