A Comparative study of the most important components of romanticism in Shamloo and Tagore poetry

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was poet, philosopher, musician and portraitist from Bengal, India. He is mostly famous for poetry. He was the first Asian winner of Nobel Prize (Mahvashan, 2018: 144-146). Tagore is known as the Indian Goethe, he is among the most distinguished Indian characters who supported Mahatma Gandhi in Indian Independence Movement (Watt, 2018: 452). He is among the poets who has been influenced by philosophical thoughts and new European literary genres due to India colonization by England, familiarity with English language, education in Europe, reading western authors’ works and also through translating and researching intellectual and literary works.  Ahmad Shamlou is Iranian poet, author, lexicographer, scholar and translator who is considered as the main representative of free verse in Iran. He has been influenced by western culture and literature due to travels and translating European works. Shamlou has lectured in countries like Germany and America as committed open-minded poet. Shamlou also won Stig Dagerman Prize at the end of his life. This prize dedicated to Shamlou for defending freedom of speech and discussion (Shahrjerdi, 2003: 25).Tagore and Shamlou are both universal poet and scholar, committed open mind, humanitarian and philosopher who have expressed their emotions and thoughts in their poems well and have influenced by western culture and literature directly or indirectly. Both of them pay attention to poetic beauties. They also were interested in music, theater and drama. Tagore has travelled to Iran tow times and he has spoken about his Iranian origin in both times in his lectures: “I am Iranian and my ancestors migrated to India from this land. I am glad to have come to my ancestors’ homeland.” (Mahvashan, 2018: 146). Shamlou has also read Tagore’s poems and even he has tape recorded Chitra Play in his voice (Pourazimi, 2018: 558-560). Therefore, the evidences show that Shamlou has been indirectly influenced by him.Among literary schools, romanticism components form the most common features between Shamlou and Tagore poems which is analyzed and investigated based on indices mentioned in authentic literary schools books in their poems. According to commentators, romanticism mostly has these indices: freedom, character, emotion and feelings, naturalism, escape and travel, revelation, the magic of speech, returning to Middle Ages and legends, unanimous and lyrical songs and epic poems, reflecting century diseases, paying attention to play, different types of novel and… but romanticism differed in different countries due to social, political and cultural conditions (Seyyed Hosseini, 2016: 183-189).Comparative literature has been changed and progressed many times from the beginning due to its international, cultural and interdisciplinary content. Therefore, various views have been proposed to analyze and investigate nations’ literature works. But two schools are more famous and more popular among other ones: French school of comparative literature, American school of comparative literature. But this study mostly analyzes romanticism parameters in Shamlou and Tagore poems based on comparative literature school. Totally, American school of comparative literature has been mostly based on similarity not difference which is distinguished in French school; American school mostly relies on modern criticism and gives originality to text not to hypertext. Thus, this school also pays attention to literature and other human wisdoms such as beautiful arts and even experimental sciences (Khatib, 2020: 46 narrated by Seyyedi, 2017: 52-53).

This study has investigated the most important components of romanticism mostly based on the principles of American comparative school in Shamlou and Tagore poems through descriptive-analytical method and quantitative evaluation. Shamlou poems which are studied are: Poems of Irons and Feelings, The Verdict, Fresh Air, The Mirror Orchard, Moments and Forever, Ayda in the Mirror, Ayda: Tree, Dagger, Remembrance, Phoenix in the Rain, The Eulogies of Soil, Blossoming in the Moist, Abraham in the Fire, Poniard in the Plate, Little Rhapsodizes of Exile, Unrewarded Eulogies, On the Threshold, The Tale of Mahan’s Restlessness, these poems have been collected during 1945-2000 and have been published in a book titled: Ahmad Shamlou, the Works Collection of First Book, Poems (2016). Tagore’s poems which have been analyzed mentioned in the literature review.Thus, Tagore’s poems translated and Shamlou’s poems reread and according to the most important sources of recognizing literary schools, comparative literature and criticism, the most principal indicators of romanticism have been identified and classified in the poems of Shamlou and Tagore which compared and analyzed by mentioning examples and the frequency of most components have been quantitatively evaluated.

 Discussion :

  Poems of Tagore and Shamlou are analyzable in different literary dimensions, especially components and features of romanticism. Although they are different in worldview, spatial, temporal and lingual conditions, they have similarities considering some intellectual and literary attitudes and lyrical concepts. This essay has comparatively investigated the most important components of romanticism such as: nature, imagination, individuality, freedom, travel, nostalgia and love intheir poems. Totally, they have equally used three components of nature, human behavior, nature and individuality in their poems.Both of them love nature and have used natural elements to create imaginary pictures; but Shamlou has used imagination elements more than Tagore. Shamlou has symbolically used nature to develop political and social concepts and Tagore has used it to develop the meaning of mysticism and personal feeling. Both of them expressed their feelings. Emotions and thoughts using nature and they have not only aimed at describing the appearance of nature in their poems and they used nature symbolically.Individuality also plays an expansive role in the poems of both poets. Both of them try to express their personal thoughts and feelings. When Shamlou talks about myself, the reader approximates to his real and true character in his life, but reader faces with poet’s momentary feeling and emotion in Tagore’s poems and as Shamlou does not page his personal and real life book, individuality associates with social and human self in Shamlou’s poems and this is less in Tagore’s poems.Both of them believe in love and except sweetheart’s physical aspects they considered her soul and clarity. The identity of sweetheart is clear in romantic poems that Shamlou has composed for Ayda. Tagore does not mention his sweetheart in is romantic poems but is some poems is concluded that he meant his wife from woman. Both of them challenged for human freedom, made corrections in society, both of them considered life and death as a journey.

Considering romanticism components in the poems of Shamlou and Tagore it is concluded that: both poets are similar to each other considering the frequency of using three nature, human behavior and individuality components in their poems. Both of them love nature and have used nature elements to create imaginary picture, expressing feelings and thoughts and have attributed human behaviors to nature to approximate more to nature. Individuality appears more in their poems: Shamlou used individuality sometimes in collective concept. Except poetry, both of them tried to make corrections in the society as an open mind. Releasing people from captivity and corrupted thoughts were their intellectual challenge. Travel is also a component which is used equally in their poems. Both of the considered life and death as a journey. Shamlou has used imagination element more than Tagore. Despite the lack of happy childhood, childhood nostalgia is obvious in their poems. Nostalgia and loneliness have been considered by both of them. Tagore and Shamlou believed in love and except the physical beauties of sweetheart, they considered her soul and clarity. But Tagore explained mystical sweetheart than earthly sweetheart in his poems.