The Poem “Azer” and Huseyin Cavid from the Perspective of “Azer”

Abstract

The first quarter of the 20th century is known as a movement of "national-social consciousness" in Azerbaijani literature and Hüseyin Cavid, who wrote about social, political and historical issues, is one of the important names who authored the most prominent examples of romanticism. Hüseyin Cavid's poem "Azer" is a work of extensive study written during the Soviet regime and marked by its unique features in terms of content and style. It took Cavid an extensive period (from 1920s to 1937) to complete his poem and once completed the poem has been widely accepted as an example of modern-verse epic in Azerbaijani literature. One of the distinctive features of the poem's form is that it is composed of small self contained stories, yet those smaller units integrating into the whole poem. That gave Cavid an opportunity to use aruz prosody and syllabic meter and their alternating patterns in his poem. Cavid also had the opportunity to emphasize different points in sub-headings and write about different views about his perspective of life. Cavid presented an extensive and updated array of topics in different sub-headings and parts such as "Garba Seyahat", "Yurdsuz Çocuklar", "Mescidde" and "Yaşamak ve Yaşatmak". "Azer" is a unique work where we can encounter Cavid's philosopy and his perspective of life in almost all dimensions.