Abstract

For some poets, language is not confined to fixed syntactic rules but can undergo considerable transformations in accordance with their poetic needs. Indeed, when the poet’s use of language goes beyond grammatical conventions, the poet may alter not only established norms but also the grammatical categories and functions of words in order to convey a poetic experience. In this way, the poet may sometimes transform almost everything conventionally expected of a particular syntactic constituent. Yet the ways in which poets such as Mehdi Akhavan Sales and Fereydoun Moshiri exploit the possibilities of language, as well as the extent of their linguistic interventions, are often markedly different. Akhavan consistently seeks to turn the latent possibilities of language into active ones by reviving rare and archaic syntactic features and, following Nima’s linguistic legacy, introducing numerous changes and innovations into standard syntax, thereby activating another dimension of the potentialities of words. Moshiri, by contrast, primarily works within the actual capacities of the language and sometimes adheres closely to its syntactic principles, producing poetry that is, from this perspective, simpler and characterized by fewer grammatical complexities.

Accordingly, through a comparative study of the “syntactic distinctions” in the Nimaic works of Mehdi Akhavan Sales and Fereydoun Moshiri, the present study seeks to determine how these two distinct poetic approaches and modes of poetic reasoning are manifested in syntax, and how and to what extent syntax can be subject to various transformations and innovations. In doing so, the study aims both to provide a broader perspective on the linguistic possibilities of contemporary poetry and to develop a deeper understanding of the various processes, transformations, and forms of syntactic flexibility found in the works of these two poets. The analysis focuses on the interaction between poetic intention and syntactic structure, highlighting the distinctive strategies through which each poet expands or preserves the expressive resources of language, while also revealing how poetic creativity can reshape grammatical structures and contribute to the evolving nature of literary language.