Politics, Prison and Poetry

Abstract

Farrokhi Yazdi (1889–1939) is among the most notable pioneers of the poetry of the Constitutional Revolution (1905–21). He employed classical poetic forms and conventions (largely ghazals) to illustrate his advocacy of socialist revolutionary ideas, such as patriotism, liberty, and social justice. Farrokhi’s boldness in criticizing the ruling dynasty and harbouring underling socialist themes resulted in multiple prison terms, during which he continued to compose numerous lyric poems with sociopolitical themes. This chapter examines Farrokhi’s ghazals by categorizing them into three groups based on their themes: those with revolutionary and nationalistic themes inspired by the Iranian Constitutional Revolution; those promoting socialism inspired by the 1917 Russian Revolution; and poetry with both political and social contents composed during his incarceration, his habsiyyāt per se. This chronological division—Farrokhi’s anti-Russian references in his poetry of the Constitutional Revolution are gradually replaced by praise for Russia after the 1917 Revolution—unveils the developmental trajectory for the ghazals’ aesthetic and political developments. Analysis of these writings will highlight Farrokhi’s beliefs, his wishes to discuss contemporary sociopolitical issues, and his perceived socialist solutions to societal ills.