Although classical Turkish poetry is thought at first glance to be a tradition in which only men produce works, a considerable number of female poets have also emerged within this tradition. There are nearly fifty female poets who write poetry in the tradition of classical Turkish poetry. In this study, the visal and hijran-ı yar rhyme ghazals of Şeref Hanım, one of the 19th century poets, were examined and, based on the images in these ghazals, it was tried to reveal how the poet expressed the subject of hicran-visal. Şeref Hanım extensively used the theme of visal and hijran in her ghazals. It was observed that the poet used the word hijran 27 times and visal 27 times in his 255 ghazals. Visal and hijran are two words of Arabic origin and are among the basic subjects of the classical Turkish poetry tradition. The subject expressed by these two concepts is extremely important in terms of reflecting the poets’ general approach and imagination in their search for meaning. There is a lot of data about these two themes in Şeref Hanım’s ghazals. The dilemma of visal and hijran constitutes our subject of study as a reflection of the poet’s aesthetic imaginations. In the study, the poet’s longing to be reunited with his beloved, hijran, and the love incident in which he fell into the dilemma of visal, was emphasized and this dilemma experienced by the poet was explained with examples. Our aim here is to reveal how the poet expresses the theme of visal and hijran in his poems.
Classical poetry, Şeref Hanım, visal, hijran, redif.