An analysis of Hafez's Poetry According to the I. A. Richard's Principles of Literary Criticism

Ivor Armstrong Richards (1893-1965) was one of the most influential thinkers in the domains of psychology, philosophy, and literary criticism. He criticized all past literary criticism theories very severely. In this article, after a short presentation of Richards’ most important works, it is tried to draw a historical, philosophical and methodological background of his thoughts. Then by explaining “value”, “experience” and “communication”, as three essential concepts of Richard’s theory, a comprehensive summary of this theory is presented. In the second part, Richards’ criticism theory is expressed in the form of five general propositions, then the content of Hafez poetry is studied according to these categories. The results show that organization of different impulses, that is the core of Richards’s theory about the function of poetry, has also an essential role for Hafez. These findings not only open a new horizon for a deep comprehension of Hafez is thought and poetry, but can also be considered as an evidence for the success of Richards to make a general criticism theory.