In the contemporary period, that is, from the time of the Constitutional Movement to the contemporary era, criticism and protest have become part of the lives of people, especially the faithful poets.

 

In fact, protest poetry in the strict sense of the word refers to the poetry of the post-war period in which the poet of the Revolution criticizes the forgetfulness and transformation of values. This type of poetry also has a history in the years of war. Mohammad-Reza Abdolmalekian’s “Hashemi Street” can be considered one of the first successful works that specifically dealt with social issues. Of course, it is more focused on groups and social strata who opposed the Revolution. Protest poetry, which specifically refers to insiders, is more evident in the works of Hasan Hoseyni and Alireza Qazveh. Of course, during the early years of the Revolution, which was the time of the formation of the system, this type of poetry did not benefit the society, but in the period of stability, the ground was prepared for such concepts. One of the reasons which gave rise to this type of poetry was that a group of insiders were gradually influenced by material concerns and desires, hypocrisy and exploitation. As a result, poems such as “Molla Villa Nadasht” and “Rouzegar-e Qahti-e Vejdan” by Alireza Qazveh and “Noush Daroui-ye Tarh-e Zhenrik” by Hasan Hoseyni were composed.

 

This type of poetry “appeared more in sonnet (ghazal). However, protest poetry is not limited to ghazal.” Some of the poets of the Revolution who are engaged in writing new poems have also been featured in this type of poetry. “Safarzadeh’s poetry is a social and completely impersonal poem in which there is no sign of personal characters of the poet.” Among other prominent poets active in the field of the social poetry of the Revolution, are Ali Moallem-Damaghani, Salman Harati, Qeysar Aminpour and Alireza Qazveh.

 

Musical Review of Protest Poetry

 

How language is combined with elements of music and imagination is very important in conveying the message of poetry. In general, the music of poetry is constituted of a set of proportions that the poet uses through the prosodic metre or the harmony between the word and the repetition of letters, vowels and words. One view has divided the music of poetry into four types: external, lateral, internal and spiritual.

 

External Music

 

External music of poetry refers to the music resulting from any order in the complete poetry in general and the prosodic metre in particular.

 

The Types of Classical Protest Poetry

 

Type	Ghazal	Mathnawi	Ode	Quatrain	Do-bayti	Tetrasyllabic	strophe	Total
Number	100	29	1	10	3	2	1	146

 

Seas of Classical Protest Poetry

 

Sea	Rajaz	Ramal	Hazaj	Mujtath	Mudhara	Mutaqareb	Namutaaref	Toul	Others
Number	16	43	26	20	11	1	17	5	8

 

Among the metres, the “octagonal deleted Ramal” has a taste that other metres do not. It neither contains a recent deep trauma or hardship which makes it aggressive nor does it resemble the sea of ​​Rajaz that leads to rhythm and dance. “Octagonal Ramal” is a combination of “regret and protest,” and poets who look at events with compassion, not hostility, tend to use it.

 

Another example is:

 

Can a man’s grief be depicted?

Can anyone draw a geographical map of pain..?

Can anyone draw on the ornate canvas of the spring,

the extent of the grief of the yellow leaf? 

By seeing the empty hands, can anyone

depict the shadow of a man’s pain?

 

Most of the protest poems have been written based on the sea of ​​Ramal. Accordingly, it should be noted that in addition to the theme, the time and social issues of each era also affect the poetry and even its metre. Furthermore, there is a relationship between artistic creations and external reality such that social developments would make impacts on such relationships. In other words, “all social developments affect works of art, whether that development has been caused by a war, conquest, or a political or economic change; All affect the structure and content of art and literature.”

 

Khizabi and Jouibari Metres in Protest Poems

 

Based on the soft and fluent music or rhythmic music and the repetition of elements, the metre of the poem is divided into two types: “Khizabi and Jouibari.” Khizabi metres refer to intense and moving metres in which the rhythmic order of mnemonic words called Afaeel often creates a need for repetition in the mind of the reader and frequently has acatalectic or catalectic lines in which the concept of “priority” and “distance” are tangibly embedded. As the waves of the sea that the eyes and ears expect them to come again and again in regular intervals and even to a specific place.

 

I wish our night would be an amazing morning,

and the last rain will fall on the silent gutter.

They said, “this soil has no longer cypress and spruce,”

 trees are strange here, there is no brave person here.”

I will fly in the name of the storm and the sea,

the crows that block the way to the skies!

 

However, such metres have been used very little in protest poetry, and it seems that the protest poetry is more compatible with the Jouibari metres, which reflect the poet’s state of pain and sorrow. The following table proves this view:

 

Khizabi and Jouibari Metres

 

Khizabi	Jouibari	Total
33	113	146

 

Some instances of the Jouibari metres are as follows:

 

Now we are your business partner, and certainly,

our income is mixed with a thousand lies.

Your fatty meals will keep the mouths closed

so that no bitter word comes out of them.

Be aware that the seditionists are lurking,

 they are lurking to attack the religion.

 

New Metres in Protest Poetry

 

New metres are one of the most prominent features of contemporary poetry. They include the metres that had been rarely used in the past poetry or the ones that are simply invented by the poets themselves. The contemporary sonneteers, by inventing new metres or reviving the known metres in the previous sonnets (ghazal), prepared the contemporary Ghazal to accept new semantic spaces. Moreover, they created completely new metres while preserving the musical values ​​of traditional prosodies and observing the quantitative and qualitative proportions of syllables, which is regarded as the main essence of Persian poetry.

 

In fact, modern sonneteers have chosen the unit of metre with the aim of achieving defamiliarization through the sonnet. Also, “by adding unprecedented metres to the ones used in sonnets, they have given this old format a new identity making it embracing new messages and modern meanings.”

 

And man lost all of his faith in pursuit of provisions,

the earth, with five turns of prostration, lost in the seven skies.

There is no food; so no one can sleep; and ears have listened enough,

I am with you, the wall; be aware of the pain of people.

 

Lateral Music

 

In his book “The Music of Poetry” Dr. Shafiei writes: “Lateral Music refers to the factors that influence the musical system of poetry, but it is not visible throughout the verse or hemistich. On the contrary, external music, the manifestation of which is the same throughout the verses and the hemistichs, is equally present in all parts. There are many reflections for the lateral music the most obvious example of which are rhyme and radif.”

 

Just yesterday, the man you know,

humiliated me in front of people for a small amount of money.

Last night, as soon as my wife brought the food, I went to bed,

and I said: children cannot sleep when hungry, I am not hungry!

I asked myself several times whether one can

cry for the martyrs with the same eyes?

The zeal for protective jealousy was taken from the faces,

with the opening of any television tower.

Buying bananas and arranging them skillfully beside Chinese gooseberry,

show that a person has become a real man!

The whistle and the clap are your presentations in the battle,

blood in the heart of religion is your unacceptable excuse.

You are dancing on the corpse of the anemone,

denying the faith of spring is part of your culture.

Alas, for how long should we remain in this state?

for how long should we sing the song of life?

Shame on you earthly gods,

shame on you for this blasphemy.

 

The protest poetry is dynamic and forward-looking and the poets writing such poems hate despair, inactiveness and remaining silent when facing inequality and injustice. In addition, they have always encouraged themselves and society to be active and dynamic so that what is necessary for an ideal society will be achieved. Such poems include:

 

The Revolution was not achieved easily,

its ship moved on the river of the blood of martyrs.

We endure the hardships, and we will not seek dignity for ourselves

by ignoring the endeavours of those who sacrificed their lives.

Oh, devilish apples! Go away,

we do not follow Prophet Adam in this regard.

 

Today, protest poetry is one of the currents of poetry that has flourished among committed poets after the Islamic Revolution. Although this category of poems implies the concept of protest, it is at the same time tempered with the religious beliefs of the poets. Music plays a prominent role in protest poetry; The theme of protest poetry has a special harmony with the metre and music of the words, and hence a sense of sadness, regret, and protest is surging inside these poems. By reading such poems, their special emotional state is transferred to the reader through the music of the words. This is the case for all musical elements of protest poetry; That is, the rhymes, radif, and other repetitive elements of this poem reflect a sense of protest and regret.

 

Reference: Journal of Persian Language & Literature [Former Journal of the Faculty of Literature, University of Tabriz]. Volume 67, Spring & Summer 2014.

 

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