Methods of Imagery (Imagism) in the Poems of Fereydoun Moshiri

The literary movement of Imagism was one of the major and influential currents of early twentieth century Western literature, emerging in reaction to the verbosity, rhetorical expression, generalization, and excessive emotionalism of preceding literary schools. The theoretical roots of this movement can be traced to the ideas of Thomas Ernest Hulme, and it reached maturity in the works of poets such as Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot. Imagism reduced poetry to the recording of a “pure moment” of human perception—a moment that, through concrete imagery, compressed language, and the elimination of verbal excess, is directly and immediately impressed upon the reader’s mind. By emphasizing clear, tangible, multisensory images and a relative liberation from traditional metrical patterns, imagism paved the way for a fundamental transformation in modern Western poetry. The impact of this movement is also observable in contemporary Persian literature through the translation of modern works and the developments of New Persian Poetry. A number of Iranian poets have been influenced by its principles, each in their own distinctive way.
Introduction
Among contemporary Persian poets, Fereydoun Moshiri (1926–2000) occupies a distinctive position. His poetry, characterized by a simple, fluent, and emotionally resonant yet precise and carefully measured language, establishes a deep connection with the reader’s lived world. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Moshiri distances himself from linguistic complexity, philosophical abstraction, and the verbal harshness of radical modernist trends, while relying on clarity, concision, and concrete imagery. His poetic images are often constructed from natural and everyday elements such as rain, alleys, lamps, windows, soil, and stars—elements that appear not as complex symbols but as tangible and shared components of human experience. This characteristic has rendered Moshiri’s poetry, particularly in the collection Āhang-e Bārān (The Melody of Rain), highly amenable to an Imagist reading. The central concern of the present study is to determine the extent to which imagery in Fereydoun Moshiri’s poetry—especially in Āhang-e Bārān—corresponds to the principles of Imagism, and to examine the functions these images perform in constructing his poetic world and conveying meaning and emotion. Although Moshiri is often regarded as a poet of simplicity and emotional expression, a systematic examination of his poetry from an Imagist perspective has received relatively little scholarly attention to date. Accordingly, this study seeks to move beyond general descriptions and to undertake a structural and functional analysis of Moshiri’s poetic imagery, thereby elucidating the role of Imagism in the formation of his personal style. The aim of the research is to analyze the mechanisms of image-making in selected poems from Āhang-e Bārān and to demonstrate that imagery in Moshiri’s poetry is not merely a decorative  element, but rather plays a fundamental role in transmitting meaning, emotion, and the poet’s lived experience. On this basis, the study addresses questions such as: How are Imagist features reflected in the poems “Kucheh” (The Alley), “Setāreh-Bārān” (Starfall), “Cherāgh” (The Lamp), “Dar Gozargāh” (At the Passageway), and “Khātereh-ye Bārān” (The Memory of Rain)? How are Imagist elements and techniques—such as concision, image-centeredness, the elimination of verbal excess, and multisensory perception—employed in the linguistic and imagistic structures of these poems? And what is the dominant function of imagery in these works: does it serve merely descriptive and aesthetic purposes, or does it contribute to the evocation of emotion, the advancement of narrative, and the creation of a meaningful poetic space?
Materials and Methods
The research adopts a qualitative, descriptive–analytical methodology. Data were collected through library research, including the examination of theoretical sources and poetic texts, and the poems were analyzed through close textual reading grounded in the theoretical frameworks of imagery and Imagism. The theoretical framework of the study is based on definitions of imagery in Persian literary criticism, which regard imagery as the result of the poet’s mental intervention in nature and humanity and the establishment of relationships between them, encompassing various figurative uses of language, from simile and metaphor to synesthesia. Perspectives that view image-making as a form of artistic creation and as a means of animating words and objects also inform the analysis. Alongside these foundations, key principles of Imagism—such as objectivity, linguistic compression, focus on the pure perceptual moment, and avoidance of abstraction and slogan-like expression—are taken into account in the analysis of the poems.
Research Findings
In the analytical section, five poems—“Kucheh,” “Setāreh-Bārān,” “Cherāgh,” “Dar Gozargāh,” and “Khātereh-ye Bārān”—from Āhang-e Bārān are examined. The results indicate that imagery in these poems typically begins with precise observation of external details and gradually becomes intertwined with the poet’s inner and emotional layers. Through the personalization of natural elements, extensive use of multisensory imagery (visual, auditory, olfactory, and tactile), and the creation of narrative and at times cinematic scenes, Moshiri constructs a space that invites the reader to share in a collective experience of emotion, memory, and time. For example, in the poem “The Memory of Rain,” rain is not merely a natural phenomenon but a bridge between the external world and the poet’s mind; the scent of wet soil, the sound of rainfall, and the image of a rain-soaked walkway objectify memory, solitude, and the passage of time, thereby revealing the essence of Imagism. The findings of the study demonstrate that Imagism in Moshiri’s poetry assumes a “gentle” and humane form. His images tend less toward symbolic or abstract complexity and rely more on the direct transmission of sensation and experience. This characteristic allows Moshiri’s poetry, while marked by clarity and concision, to attain emotional and interpretive depth. In these poems, imagery functions beyond mere aesthetics and becomes a tool for linking emotion, memory, time, and everyday life.
Discussion of Results and conclusion
In conclusion, Imagism in the poetry of Fereydoun Moshiri—particularly in Āhang-e Bārān—is not a single, isolated literary technique but the foundational infrastructure of his poetic worldview. By drawing upon the principles of Imagism while simultaneously localizing them within the context of Persian poetry, Moshiri created an independent and distinctive style rather than merely imitating Western models. His form of Imagism, rooted in a profoundly human and emotional perspective, is the primary factor in fostering reader empathy and ensuring the enduring presence of his poems in collective memory. From this perspective, Moshiri’s works may be regarded as a prominent and fully developed example of Iranian Imagism, one that enables the expression of philosophical and human experiences through simple, clear, and sensory images.