Analysis and Examination of the Manifestations of Individual (Romantic) Romanticism In the Poetry of Behzad and Partow Kermanshahi
Subject Areas : Research in Contemporary Iranian Literature
1 - Assistant Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran.
Keywords: Romanticism, Behzad and Partow Kermanshahi, individual (romantic) Romanticism, contemporary poetry.,
Abstract :
Analysis and Examination of the Manifestations of Individual (Romantic) Romanticism In the Poetry of Behzad and Partow Kermanshahi
Akbar Shamlou*
The Romantic movement marked the beginning of a new era in the history of intellectual modernization. This movement, whose foundations were laid in the 18th century, opened a new path for seekers of truth and their desires, driving them toward transformation and revolution. On the other hand, Romanticism, in contrast to the rationalism of Classicism, paved the way for new literary schools. This literary movement was primarily based on emotions, intuition, aesthetics, and inner feelings. In contemporary Persian poetry, Romanticism emerged as a literary trend expressing individual emotions and sentiments in response to socio-political transformations. Yadollah Behzad Kermanshahi and Ali Ashraf Nobeti (known by his pen name Partow Kermanshahi) were two poets of the Kermanshah literary school whose works prominently reflect the components and principles of Romanticism. This study, employing a descriptive-analytical method, demonstrates that elements of individual (romantic) Romanticism—such as an emphasis on nature and its elements, love, individualism, nostalgia for childhood, youth, and old age, as well as a critical perspective-are artistically and skillfully reflected in the poetry of these two poets. Expressions of sorrow over poverty and the loss of friends in Behzad’s poetry, along with an admiration for death in Partow’s verses, are among the most recurrent themes of Romanticism.
Keywords: Romanticism, Behzad and Partow Kermanshahi, individual (romantic) Romanticism, contemporary poetry.
Romanticism, a cultural, artistic, and literary movement that emerged in Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, developed as a reaction to the rationalism of the Enlightenment and the rules of Neoclassicism. This movement emphasized emotion, imagination, individualism, and a deep connection with nature. Its principal characteristics include an emphasis on personal feelings and creative imagination, nature as a source of inspiration and a symbol of freedom and truth, individualism and heroism, nostalgia and a tendency toward the past, criticism of industrial society, and an interest in the supernatural. The entry of Romanticism into Iran occurred in the socio-cultural context of the Qajar period, particularly during the Constitutional Revolution. The translation of European authors and domestic cultural transformations created the grounds for the reception and re-adaptation of this movement in the Persian literary sphere. In Iran, modern poetry—especially through the works of Nima Youshij—provided a freer medium for the expression of emotions and linguistic innovation, paving the way for the emergence and development of Romantic forms, including the “individual” branch.
This article specifically examines and analyzes the manifestations of “individual Romanticism” in the works of two poets from Kermanshah—Yadollah Behzad Kermanshahi and Ali Ashraf Nobati (Perto). Individual Romanticism, in contrast to its social branch, emphasizes the poet’s personal and lived emotional experiences. Hallmarks of this approach include the frequent use of the pronoun “I,” personal nostalgia, meditations on death, solitude, and an emphasis on earthly love. The research shows that, although these features appear fluidly across different works, identifiable patterns and recurrent motifs emerge in the selected texts that demonstrate the coherent characteristics of individual Romanticism in these two poets.
Discussion and Analysis of Findings
In the works of “Behzad Kermanshahi”, natural imagery is interwoven with a heroic-national tone and occasional social elements. His poetry employs expansive natural images—gardens, spring breezes, winds, autumn leaves—and uses nature as a vehicle for nostalgia or social critique. In poems such as *Farvardin*, *Ashoub-e Kalaghan* (“The Uproar of the Crows”), and several selected pieces, nature simultaneously serves as a mirror of the poet’s inner state and a stage for expressing protest or longing. Behzad’s Romanticism is shaped in part by his historical experience, notably the aftermath of the 1953 coup (28 Mordad), which imbues his works with layers of grief and disillusionment toward the political and social situation. In this way, his individual Romanticism often becomes a form of critical expression that transcends purely private sentiment.
“Perto Kermanshahi”, by contrast, presents a Romanticism that leans more heavily on local nostalgia and collective memory. His language is simpler and more musical, and his imagery frequently draws on the local landscape and cultural geography of Kermanshah—childhood homes, rivers, the sea, and the night—as repositories of communal memory. In poems such as *The House of Memories*, *Youth*, and other pieces recalling childhood and youth, the longing for lost times, the yearning to return to the pure days of the past, and the mourning for absent friends dominate. In many cases, Perto treats death as a form of release or passage beyond suffering; this attitude toward death, combined with nostalgia and natural imagery, defines the Romantic tenor of his poetry.
A common thread in both poets’ work is the recurrent use of symbolic images—wind, gardens, rivers, seas, and night—that create symbolic unity across their texts. These images not only shape the narrative-emotional atmosphere of the poems but also, through techniques such as repetition of the pronoun “I,” emotional refrains, temporal shifts, and the blending of classical imagery with modern vocabulary, construct an internal cohesion that draws the reader into the poet’s emotional experience. Their similes and metaphors, simple yet potent, combined with a lexicon that draws on the classical Persian heritage, demonstrate the continuous interplay between modern Persian literature and its traditional roots.
Nostalgia in these works manifests in three prominent forms: nostalgia for childhood and youth (recollections of innocence and vitality), nostalgia born of separation from the beloved (lamenting absence and the emptiness of home without the beloved), and nostalgia for departed friends and cultural figures (elegies for companions and luminaries such as Mehdi Akhavan Sales and Gholamreza Takhti). This nostalgic mode intersects with Iran’s historical context—disillusionment after the Constitutional period, coups, revolution, and war—thereby transcending purely sentimental individualism and reflecting broader historical wounds.
Socio-economic dimensions also play a role in shaping themes: complaints of poverty and deprivation, loneliness, and fear of aging recur in both poets’ works. Behzad, in several pieces, laments financial hardship and the embarrassment of hosting friends in poverty, while Perto occasionally references destitution and displacement. These motifs reveal how individual Romanticism in these poems is intertwined with the realities of daily life and social circumstance.
Formal analysis also yields significant observations: Behzad’s linguistic structure features lexical grandeur, a tendency toward epic expression, and frequent historical allusions. In contrast, Perto’s language is simpler, more melodic, and imbued with local color. This divergence in linguistic, formal, and thematic qualities indicates that individual Romanticism in Iran is shaped by regional context and biographical background, manifesting in varied forms rather than as a monolithic imported model.
Alongside thematic and structural analysis, the study highlights the symbolic function of certain elements: gardens and nightingales as emblems of beauty and joy; crows as symbols of darkness and ugliness; wind, rivers, and seas as symbols of wandering, movement, and the journey toward death or life’s ultimate purpose. Interpreting these symbols within the specific contexts of each poet’s works enables a deeper reading of the emotional and historical layers embedded in the texts.
Conclusion
In its final analysis, the article demonstrates that individual Romanticism in the poetry of Behzad and Perto Kermanshahi emerges not as a simple borrowing from the European movement but as a localized process shaped by regional history and personal experience. Raw personal emotions, poetic imagination, and nostalgic tendencies in these works are often intertwined with historical traumas (coup, revolution, war), such that Romanticism functions both as a representation of inner states and as a vehicle for critical-social reflection.
Stylistic and lexical analysis further reveals that each poet shapes Romantic feeling through distinct linguistic and technical means. Behzad gravitates toward eloquence and literary grandeur; his use of elevated diction, epic imagery, and social references lends his poetry a historical hue. His post-1953 poems, in particular, show that his individual Romanticism is frequently connected to layers of protest and social critique. Perto, on the other hand, focuses in tone and structure on nostalgia and local atmosphere; his emphasis on Kermanshah-specific imagery, collective memory, and internal musicality reveals a form of Romanticism more oriented toward “local nostalgia” than direct social engagement. The study also shows that recurring images—wind, garden, night, sea, and river—play a central role in creating semantic unity within their texts, linking tradition and modernity through the blending of classical and contemporary vocabulary.
The article’s methodology is grounded in close textual analysis of selected works from each poet’s oeuvre. The researcher chose representative poems—including *Farvardin*, *Ashoub-e Kalaghan*, *Bi To* (“Without You”), *Kolbeh-ye Man* (“My Hut”), *The House of Memories*, and *Youth*—and coded for qualitative indicators such as natural imagery, nostalgia, meditations on death, solitude, and complaints of deprivation. The frequency and mode of appearance of these elements were then examined. A comparative method was employed to analyze linguistic structures, symbolic imagery, and historical shifts in each poet’s language, revealing how a core of individual Romanticism transforms in relation to the socio-historical context. This combined approach facilitates a more precise understanding of the role of localization in the movement and the influence of regional variation. The primary limitation of the study lies in the narrow sample of two poets and its reliance on primarily qualitative methods; future research is advised to expand the corpus and integrate mixed quantitative-qualitative approaches.
Undoubtedly, by offering a conceptual categorization and sample-based analysis, this study can serve as a foundation for the preparation of educational materials, the compilation of regional literary reports, the encouragement of interdisciplinary research on Iranian Romanticism, and the development of digital literary archives.
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* Assistant Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran.
Dr.shamloo@pnu.ac.ir
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