Introduction

As the starting point of a great intellectual and social change in the contemporary history of Iran, the Constitutional (Mashruteh) era is a beginning for taking a step on the path of modernity; it is also the beginning of significant changes in Persian poetry. During this era, poetry becomes aligned with social changes and the most important aspects of modernity and innovation in poetry are in the thought and language. Poetry in the Constitutional era is related to the requirements of the time and expresses social needs in a new language that is close to colloquial language. The political and social views of the Constitutional era entered poetry and poetry became the language that expressed the problems and deprivations of the common people.
The goal of poetry during this era is to awaken people, arouse patriotic feelings, promote individual and social freedoms, and familiarize people with their human rights. These issues are expressed in a new language that is simple and unadorned. Meanwhile, another dimension of the innovation of the Constitutional poets is considered to be the efforts of these poets in creating new poetic images. Although Constitutional poetry approaches slogans and is not bound by imagery and craftsmanship and in the view of the pioneers of Constitutional poetry, the main mission of the poet of this period is social enlightenment, there is also evidence of the efforts of Constitutional poets for imagery innovation. By searching through the poetry of these poets, innovation in poetic imagery can be found. In many cases, this innovation in poetic images is linked to the thoughts of the poets. Nature, external elements, and other phenomena take on the color of the poets’ socio-political attitudes and in many cases, these create new poetic images. In addition to this factor, emerging phenomena and new industries and goods are also raw materials for constitutional poets in imagery innovation. By using these elements and with an individual point of view, Constitutional poets have created new images and have been the illustrators of their time with all its characteristics. Emerging jobs that are the result of the expansion of urbanization are another factor in imagery innovation. A new look at nature and not being limited to the defined frameworks of tradition has also been another factor in the creation of new images. The precision in the human relationships of their time and the tangible elements of their contemporary life was another factor in imagery innovation. In addition to all of these factors, the reflection of events of the time and the historical events of the era is also another factor in imagery innovation.

Literature Review

Although many works in Iran have been written about intellectual and linguistic innovations of Constitutional poets, works that deal with imagery innovation are rare. In some books written about Constitutional literature, the imagery innovation of the Constitutional poets has been mentioned. Several articles have also been written about the imagery of Constitutional era poets. The article “A Discussion of the Literary Aspects of the Poems of Mirzadeh Eshghi” (2016) by Ahmad Ranjbar and Malahat Najafi Arab also examined literary features such as applied poetic forms of Eshghi, meters, some features of figurative forms including similes and metaphors, allusions, types of puns, and some figure of speech in his poetry, and did not focus much on the innovation of poetic images. The article “Imagery and Ray al-Eyn in Mirzadeh Eshghi’s Three Tableaux of Maryam Script” (2019) by Javad Ali Mohammadi Ardakani and Faraz Yavari is also one of the articles that has referred to the imagery characteristics of Eshghi in the play Three Tableaux of Maryam. The article “Rhetorical Criticism of the Constitutional Poetry with Emphasis on the Poems of Mirzadeh Eshqi and Abulqasim Lahouti” (2019) by Ali Soleimani and Mahmoud Mehravaran has not examined the innovation of imagery in the poems of these poets. The article “Analysis of the Characteristics of Imagination and Emotion in the Poems of Mirzadeh Eshghi” (2021) by Salimeh Turkinejad, Masoud Akbarizadeh, and Mustafa Salari did not study the imagery innovation in Mirzadeh Eshghi's poetry and mostly explored the frequency of imagery types such as simile, metaphor, allegory and irony in this poet's poetry and considered irony to have the highest frequency in Eshghi poetry among these imaginative elements.

Methodology

This study is a library research and the method used in it is descriptive-analytical. The poems of some Constitutionalist period poets are studied and by examining their poetic images, the imagery innovation of these poets and the causes and origins of this innovation are examined and analyzed.

Discussion

Most contemporary Iranian literary researchers have limited the innovations of Constitutional poetry to intellectual, thematic, and linguistic dimensions. However, examining the poetry of Constitutional poets shows their efforts to create new poetic images. One of the origins of the imagery innovation of Constitutional poets can be the socio-political attitude of these poets. Since rhetorical elements are subordinate to thought and content, with the change in thought, worldview, and content in the poetry of Constitutional poets, changes have inevitably occurred in the imagery. The imagery of these poets are on the path of innovation, because they are related to their socio-political attitude and have taken on the color of their worldview. Poets such as Mirzadeh Eshghi and Aref Qazvini have been strongly influenced by their attitude and worldview in creating images. The requirements of that time and the new industries and emerging phenomena that are the results of the modern era are also another source of innovation for these poets in imagery. Many of these emerging phenomena are on both sides of the simile in the poetry of these poets, and these poets have benefited from these phenomena that are accessible to everyone in order to convey their experiences to contemporaries in a desirable way. The new jobs are also another factor in imagery innovation and they have created new images with these jobs and professions. Also, in many cases, by emphasizing self-experience, objectivity, and individualism, these poets have seen nature in a different way and created new images and have achieved imagery innovation. Accuracy in the tangible characteristics of life and human relationships, precision in these relationships, and also the use of historical events of their era have also been other sources for imagery innovation in constitutional poetry.

Conclusion

The result of the present study shows the significant presence of new poetic images in the poetry of the Constitutional poets. This feature reveals the efforts of Constitutional Era poets to create new images. In some cases, innovation in the poetic images is linked to the worldview and political-social attitude of these poets and sometimes is the result of the requirements of time and the use of modern elements, emerging industrial phenomena and new professions. Sometimes it is rooted in the view of these poets on nature and its elements based on objectivity and individualism. Sometimes the accuracy in human relations and tangible characteristics of human life are the cause of innovation. Along with these historical events and their use as an analogy, this has become another factor in the imagery innovation of these poets.