Satire, which means criticizing and mocking the negative and ridiculous aspects of a person, institution or society in verse or prose, has a wide place in divan literature. In classical Turkish poetry, poets praise a person, “praise” and then “honorary”, which means praising himself, is one of the most used genres. However, it is rare for poets to criticize and ridicule themselves. If satirizing a person is the opposite of praise, the poet’s satire himself can be seen as the opposite of an honorary one. It is seen that some poets who wrote mostly poems with deliberate, humor and satire in Divan literature directed this criticism to them as well. Poets ridicule themselves for the physical defects such as being fat, stout, old age, the lack of teeth and some limbs, as well as the irregular, meaningless, tasteless, salt-free and mascara in their poems. While doing this, they do not hesitate to use vulgar and slang words that are characteristic of satire and humor. In this study, based on the poems of several satirical poets who came to the fore in divan literature, poets’ own physical flaws and their satirical skills are discussed.

Divan poetry, satire, humor, self-ridicule.