The stylistic Features of Meter in the Sonnets of Bidel Dehlavi

Although Bidel poetry is described with the adjective of "strange", most of his sonnets (ghazals) are considered "ordinary" from the point of meter,  because the high frequency meters in that collection, which about four-fifths of his sonnets are versified in, correspond the poetic traditions of that period. Nonetheless, in his sonnets with low frequency meter, there are rare or unprecedented meters that distinguish him from the others. Bidel's utilization of these meters can be analyzed regarding the culture of his life environment. The main cultural factors that impact the poetic meters are language and music which their phonic properties have determinant role in the quality of prevalent meters of that culture, and these properties reflect in the prosodic order of that language. The particular meters of Bidel’s sonnet has special phonic properties such as being long, double and relative multiplicity of short syllables in relation to long ones. These features are completely compatible with phonic features of Indian language and music, and, most of his special meters which are rare and unprecedented in Persian poetry seem being common in Indian prosodic order. From the viewpoint of aesthetic criticism, the use of these rare meters by Bidel, as an innovation develops the poetical properties of Persian language and highlights the role of meter and regards the correspondence of meter with strange content of the poems, is valuable.