A Comparative Study on Animal and Plant Symbols in Persian and Kurdish Children Poetry

One of the artistic manifestations of imagination, which helps in deepening poetry is the literary device of symbolism. Symbols pull apart the superficial layers of the words, reflect their hidden meanings, and reveal their capacity in conveying mental images. In children’s poetry, symbolism carries out the same prominent role, but since the mental world of the audience and their understanding are limited, the symbols must be chosen as simple as possible. This paper aims to compare plant and animal symbols and their frequency in Persian and Kurdish children’s poetry. Findings show that the frequency of employing symbols in Kurdish children’s poetry is higher than in Persian. Animal symbols in the children’s poetry of both languages are more than plant symbols. Moreover, the most used symbolic animals in Persian children’s poems are birds, whereas in Kurdish are mammals.