Representations of Amorous and Social Romanticism in the Poetry of Nima Yooshij and Badr Shakir al Sayyab

As a reaction and protest against classicism, rationalism and positivism, romanticism emerged in the late eighteenth century with an emphasis on individuality and personal feelings and emotions. The school replaced ethereal and mystical love with physical and terrestrial love and communication. The present study aims to analyze the features and representations of social and amorous romanticism in poems by Nima Yooshij and Badr Shakir al Sayyab. The findings of the research show that Nima and Sayyab composed their works in line with the personal, social and cultural conditions of their own time. Early in their career, both poets narrated their memories of terrestrial love in their works; Sayyab described his love affairs in his romantic works and even named the beloved in an attempt to portray their romantic relationship. Nevertheless, Jaykur, Sayyab’s birthplace, sometimes plays the role of the beloved in his poems. Later on, Sayyab detached himself from romantic poetry and addressed radical social thoughts in his works. In contrast to Sayyab, Nima never failed to deal with love in his poetry; however, the themes of Nima’s love poetry as a young man differ from those of his romantic poems as a middle-aged artist. It can be pointed out that love, in its personal sense, is more prominent in Sayyab’s works while Nima mostly focuses on social love.