Poetry is one of the primary tools for reflecting the emotions, thoughts, or daily lives of societies. In the Turkish community, in particular, poetry holds significant importance and has undergone major changes to maintain its proficiency today. The influence of poetry, shaped by the impact of daily life before Islam and blended with culture, evolved with the influence of Islam into a more complex language incorporating abstract themes. The poetry genre, enriching from Divan literature to folk literature, now continues as post-Republican poetry.
If we need to speak more specifically about poetry in daily life, for example, Turks in the pre-Islamic period reflected their joys and sorrows in koşuks and sagus, presenting them with instruments called kopuz. Similarly, folk literature has addressed themes from life, such as love and the arrival of spring.
Just as for Turks, world poets have also stated the importance of poetry in reflecting emotions and how imagery, rhetorical devices, rhymes, and meters support the harmony and concise expression in poetry. The language of poetry can be constructed with simple words from everyday life as well as with words that are dense in meaning and not frequently used in daily conversations. Goethe expressed his thoughts on poetry as follows: “The subjects of poetry will never run out; for the world is so large, so rich, and life so full of varied scenes. There is no true subject that, once a poet knows how to properly handle it, would be devoid of poetry.”
Resources:
- https://www.turkedebiyati.org/siir-ve-sair/
- https://www.edebiyatciyim.com/islamiyet-oncesi-turk-siiri/
- https://ayvakti.net/?p=897
- Photo by Álvaro Serrano on Unsplash