Custom services
English (pdf)
Article in xml format
Article references
Send this article by e-mail
Cited by SciELO 
Similars in
SciELO 
Permalink
Introduction
The basis of the vocal structure is composed of the musical text of voices and words. Abdolgader Jorjani, among the critics of Islamic eloquence, and Jacobson and Levi Strauss, among the west critics, has established the aesthetic theory and the analysis of vocal structure based on the poem, and they believe that the elegance of a word is felt in the context and language compound (Agahosseini & Zareh, 2010). The adherents of this viewpoint believe that the structure of the poem includes a collection of vocal, lexical, and syntactic harmonies that their pattern is shaped by special arrangements and repetitions; so, meter, rhyme, radif, different kinds of puns, versifications, and other techniques are of this type (Akhlagi, 1997). According to this viewpoint, the importance of voice and its structure is so much that “despite the role that it has on the musical elegance of the poetry, it is sometimes concordant with the other elements of poetry which is the infuser of meaning, and it is the illustrator, beauty creator, and exponent of the affections, without considering the explicit meaning of the words” (Sahba, 2005, p. 94). This role and importance manifests clearly, especially when the addressees of the poetry are children.
As it is stated in the definition of the child poetry: “child poetry is a musical speech that responds to the elegance of content, imagination element, and child’s musical and playing nature, by emphasizing on word’s vocal and musical modes, utilization of meter and rhyme, and emphasizing on simplicity” (Pooladi, 2005, p. 287). In this definition, by music, we do not mean prosodic and Nimayi (free verse) meters, which the former is based on equality and similarity of elements, and the latter is not based on this equality in the verses of the poetry. By it, we mean any technique that the poet utilizes to create music and coordination in his utterance. Therefore, any coordination and music that results from the way of compounding words, the choice of rhymes and radifs, coordination and conformity of consonants and vowels, is regarded as the music of poetry (Fazilat & Noroozi, 2010, p. 280, cited in Dastqeib, 1969, p. 34). Shafiee Kadkani also, regards music group as a complex of elements which distinguishes the literary language by music and harmony, and in this case, factors like meter, rhyme, radif, and pun accompany with each other. According to his viewpoint, language group is a set of factors that can lead to accentuating, on the credit of distinguishing the terminology themselves in the system of sentences (Shafiee Kadkani & Reza, 1994).
In the present study, we deal with investigating the vocal structure of child poetry of Jafar Ebrahimi, by underlying the above points about vocal structure and the importance of the musical context of the childish poetry.
Development
Although there is no independent study about the vocal structure of child poetry, especially in the works of Jafar Ebrahimi, by reflection on the conducted studies, we can attain similar items which are divided into two sections:
A) Studies accomplished about the vocal structure:
In the article “Aesthetic analysis of vocal structure in the poetry of Ahmad Azizi, based on the revelation shoes”, Agahosseini & Zareh (2010), have dealt with the aesthetic analysis of vocal structure from the viewpoint of his book, the revelation shoes, and have referred to some of its features. In the article “Aesthetic look into the vocal structure of Mohammad Reza Shafiee Kadkani’s poetry”, Rouhani (2015), has investigated the superstructure of the repertoire of secondary millenary of “mount deer” and its components. In the article “Aesthetic analysis of vocal structure in the poetry of Geisar Aminpoor”, Rouhani & Gadikalani (2012), have inspected the vocal structure and precise assortment of all components of this structure, and have referred to the figures of speech that had role in the formation of this structure. Leila Hashemian and Fardin Sharifnia in the article “The evaluation of vocal harmony in the poetry of Manoochehr Atashi” have investigated the poetry of Atashi concerning the vocal harmony, in two fields of prosodic meters of traditional and Nimayi, and the vocal coordination of consonants and vowels.
B) Studies accomplished about the music of child poetry:
In the article “The vocal linkage and the poetry of Abbas Yamini Sharif”, Shabani (2007), has investigated the poetry of Yamini Sharif by relying on its music of poetry. In this study, the presentation of subjects is in the manner of generalization, and in spite of the lexical, vocal, and syntactic harmony, the type of the Yamini’s poetry is rendered in this study. According to the findings of this study, in the perception of children from literature, the form dominates over content, and the training of this perception plays significant role in the prosperity of their literary power in the next years. So, in the composition of the childish poetry, especially in the first years of birth, it is better to pay attention to the elegance of form and the way of presenting poetry, in spite of introducing complicated and educational content. Maryam Khalili Jahantig and Masoud Zandavani in a section of the article “Stylistics of child and adolescent poetry by Abbas Yamini Sharif”, have dealt with the vocal level of the Abbas Yamini Sharif’s child poetry. Sadeghzadeh & Zareh Bidak (2014), in a section of the article “Investigating the essential lingual features and illustrations in the poetry of Rahmandoost” (2014), have proceeded the lingual accentuating. Fatemeh Fathi (2014) in her M.A thesis with the topic of “Investigating the aesthetic dimension of child poetry in the works of Jafar Ebrahimi” (2014), examines the aesthetic dimensions of Jafar Ebrahimi’s poetry in four domains of imagination, music, content, and poetry language. In the article “The aesthetics of the works" Naser Kazemkhanloo and his colleagues have inspected the recognition and introducing the aesthetic aspects of the childish poetry of Naser Keshavarz.
Discussion
The combination of words and its music in the child poetry, increases the addressee’s desire and interest in the content, so, by this technique, we can teach different concepts to children. Therefore, the way of combining voices and words and its music, has a great role in turning children towards the poetry. The soft music of language which is the result of the vocal structure, is accomplished by different techniques:
Vocal harmony
Vocal harmony which is one of the main techniques of accentuating the poetry language “is a type of language that appears from the repetition of voices and enhances the music of the poetry” (Rouhani & Enayati Gadikalani, 2012, p. 105). This harmony includes the repetition of syllables, consonants and vowels in the structure of poetry that enjoys sequence and regularity (Hashemian & Sharifnia, 2014, p. 363), and they are one of the distinctive factors between poetry and the usual language. This type of harmony is divided into two types of quantitative vocal harmony and qualitative vocal harmony.
a) Quantitative vocal harmony (meter)
When the vocal complex enjoys a special system in respect of the length of the vowels or the combination of consonants and vowels, they create the element of meter; this element is the main distinctive feature between the literary poem and prose, which leads to the accentuating of the poetry (Shafiee Kadkani & Reza, 1994), and it involves the harmony and coordination of the different elements of the language. “Meter is an instrument that helps words to influence each other. In the reading of harmonic texts, the accuracy and explicitness which is often unconscious, increases a lot”. (Richards, 1996, p. 117)
Since the child poetry needs vocal system more than the adult’s poetry, the meter in the child poetry has great importance. So, the first element that should be considered in the child poetry is the quantitative vocal harmony, and basically, the child poetry without a short, pulsatile, and gleeful meter, will never be possible. Utilization of melodious meter in the child poetry causes the poetry to seem fluently and plainly and then child can communicate intimately and quickly with that poetry. Therefore, in the child poetry, the most attention of the poet is shifted to the meter (Khalili Jahantig & Zandavani, 2011). Since the meter and content of the poetry have direct relationship with each other, the use of suitable meter can be beneficial in the realization of the content. So, the use of short, pulsatile, and gleeful meter can lead child towards the poetry. Ebrahimi has mostly used meters that one can include the simplest words in them and can interpret his words by the least prosodic elements. The mostly used prosodic meter in the poetry of Ebrahimi is the “Ramal”, which is used in the form of two-meter:
On the finger of spring/ Shaparak smiles/ her wings/are opened and closed (Ebrahimi, 2011).
Here, Ebrahimi has used Ramal in the form of the traditional poem, he also uses this meter in the form of Nimayi. The one-meter verses which are lied beside the two-meter and three-meter verses, and associate the reminiscent poem of “rain” by Golchin Gilani:
I saw/ a child/ asleep in the street/ on a dirty paper/in the cold November/ wind and storm/ on his black face/ whipped the wind/ the cold and dirty coins/ beside him/ I threw a coin/ and crossed away/ better he did not behold me/ I threw the coin/ I’m his teacher/ with all my yearning, chagrin and pain/ crossed the street/ I stood/ and in my handkerchief/ I cried/ I cried/ I cried (Ebrahimi, 2011).
After the Ramal meter, the “Hazag” meter is mostly used in the poetry of Ebrahimi. Utilization of Hazag meter for the narrative poems is his technique. For this reason, he has used this meter as the verses of dissimilar and unequal:
The land cold/ the weather cold/ a crow on a cord/ looked at me/ the land snow/ the weather snow/ the crow on that cord/ did not speak to somebody/ the land wind/ the weather wind/ the crow on the cord/ fell to the snow (Ebrahimi, 2011).
We can also find a few cases that the Hazag meter is used in the traditional form:
The last autumn I planted/ a small seeding in the garden/ which is verdure now/ with buds on its branches (Ebrahimi, 2013).
The enjoyable pulse of the “Rajaz” meter has caused Ebrahimi to use this meter:
It is spring and the land/ is filled/ with grass, eglantine and jasmine/ swallow has come long distant/ into my poetry/ turned green/ the clothes of moth (Ebrahimi, 2011).
Contrary to the three meters that are referred in the above section, the convergent meter in the poetry of Ebrahimi is used traditionally most of the time and is enumerated as a gleeful meter, because of its puttee like pulse:
My fancy bird/ take me to the heaven/ take me to the tops/ beside that stars/ come and fly/ take me to the distant/ to the distant woods/ to the land of lights (Ebrahimi, 2011).
In addition to the division of the poetry of Ebrahimi into two sections of prosodic and Nimayi, we should also refer to the syllabic poetry. In the Persian language, there is an interior desire for the utilization of syllabic meter. When we encounter a child poetry, unconsciously we revert to the former Persian language and see the syllable and prosody with each other. In the poetry of adults, we cannot find someone to claim that he wants to compose syllabic sonnet, syllabic ode, or syllabic mathnawi. In the adult poetry, the task of the poet is definite. But in the child poetry, the topic of syllable and prosody come together. The existence corroborant of syllabic poetry in the poems of Ebrahimi, are lullabies. In the initial phases of life, children comfort by the music of their mother’s lullabies, without awareness of the concept and content of them, and this issue has created the lullabies. From the beginning of the life, lullabies affect children and establish the emotional relationship between mother and child, and soothe the child and ready him/her for the perception of the music resultant from the poetry (Hejazi, 2000). In the lullabies, Ebrahimi has combined the prosodic and syllabic meter, and by utilizing the combination of them, he has composed the following poem:
La lalala, be my blossom/ sleep and awake betimes/ my dolly should sleep/ like your brother/ the air is enjoyable at home/ the spring of the flower is in the vase/ a cricket has not slept/ sings lullaby/ sings lullaby with you/ sleep calm now/ my dolly now/ you should sleep now (Ebrahimi, 2013).
b) Qualitative vocal harmony
Qualitative vocal harmony is pertained to forms in which the consonants and vowels are used with specific coordination, and by their repetition, a kind of musical harmony appears, so, it enhances the music of the poetry. Since the repetition of consonants and vowels occur scarcely in the spoken language, this form is used in the framework of accentuating process (Rouhani & Enayati Gadikalani, 2012). In the qualitative vocal harmony, the repetition of linguistic units smaller than the word is rendered; this repetition creates music and helps the realization of the poetry; in addition, it can imbue the emotional feeling in children. Gramon believes that the repetition of phoneme or syllable can associate a sound that persists and is repeated, and its worth appears when the stated thought has coordination and relationship with such repetition. Qualitative vocal harmony includes:
Repetition of initial consonant
In this type of harmony, the initial consonant of words is repeated. Since the music of this repetition is in the initial consonant of words, it is more obvious and perceptible; so, children enjoy them more. By the repetition of initial consonants, Ebrahimi has dealt with the transition of affection and infusion of specific concepts. For example, in the following poem, he has referred to the childhood and its larks, by the repetition of the consonant [k]:
I pick the unripe apple of childhood/ again from the mount (Ebrahimi, 2011).
Or in the following poetry, the repetition of consonant [k], implies on “alleviating” grief:
Sits on the windowsill/ to alleviate some of my grieves (Ebrahimi, 2013, p. 349(.
In the two above poetries, by the repetition of the “initial” consonant of words, Ebrahimi has referred to the concepts and affection related to that word.
Repetition of middle consonant
In this type of harmony, the middle consonant is repeated several times. The music of this repetition is less than the repetition of initial consonant. Indeed, by considering the differences in the intensity of the consonants, their accentuating is shown differently. For example, in the following poetry, the repetition of the consonant [ʃ], which is included as fricative, is more apparent than the repetition of other letters:
A breeze blows from the east/ that smells like alfalfa and clover/ from the back of my glance/ goes to the distant (Ebrahimi, 2011).
Repetition of final consonant
The repetition in the final consonant is in a way that in which, two or more words are common in the final consonants. For example, in the following poetry, the two words of [deh], (village) and [meh], (fog) have a common final consonant:
Comes from the distant/ the sound of the village shepherd/ the flock is not seen in the fog/ the fog has covered the moor (Ebrahimi).
Repetition of vowels
In the repetition of vowels, which also means homophony, a vowel is repeated in different words. In the following poem, the repetition of the vowel [u:], helps the image processing of the move of clouds, and enhancement of the music:
The heaps are covered with fog/ an insidious and mass fog/ it has gone out of the fog’s heart/ like a monster, the summit of the mount (Ebrahimi, 2011).
Repetition of vowel and initial consonant
This process occurs when the initial consonant and vowel is several common words that in some cases creates the prose riming (Sajh) (Safavi, 2004, p. 175). In the following poem, the syllable of (bɑ:) that has come at the beginning of several words, enhances the music by reinforcing the vocal context, and creates the equal prose riming between the two words of (rain) and (rained):
The sky turned cloudy again/ again it rained/ the face of the soil/ is tickled by rain (Ebrahimi, 2011).
Another examples:
From the distant gardens/ I have brought the flower/ I have brought with flower/ the song of the nightingale (Ebrahimi, 2013, p. 50).
Again I heard from the garden/ the sound of the autumn/ and I saw the face of the garden/ turned baleful again (Ebrahimi, 2011).
Soon the leaves fall/ and the rain started again/ the sound of the wind’s laughter/ pervaded in the garden (Ebrahimi, 2011).
I wish I could/ fly like butterflies/ by jumping out from this cage/ again I could reach my country (Ebrahimi, 2011).
How silent crosses/ the wind from the wing of the Shaparak/ the fountain flows/ when the wind visits (Ebrahimi, 2013).
Repetition of vowel and final consonant
At this type of harmony, the final consonant and vowel is repeated. The repetition of these two types of voices can lead to the creation of parallel rhyme and proseriming (Rouhani & Enayati Gadikalani, 2012). In the following example, the vowel of (ɑ) and the consonant of (z) is repeated:
I like to read/ a song of wing and fly/ I like to say/ songs full of mystery (Ebrahimi, 2011).
Another examples:
I look at mountain/ and my heart fills with silence/ my hands, in this silence/ become a verse full of praying (Ebrahimi, 2011).
Repetition of complete consonant
At this type of vocal repetition, the consonants of two or more words are repeated completely and the difference of words is in the vowels. In other words, the two or more words, have common consonants but different vowels. In the following poetries, we see examples of complete consonant repetition:
What is this bustle? / is it from the hoof of horses? / What are those lights? / They are the soul of martyrs (Ebrahimi, 2011).
The moth gives her long hair/ to the wind/ she teaches to the wind/ the lesson of the new spring (Ebrahimi, 2011).
Complete syllabic repetition
In the complete syllabic repetition, a complete syllable is repeated between two or more words. Although this type of repetition occurs mostly in rhyme, its artistic value will be more, when it is in words beyond the rhyme; for example, in the following poetries:
The dusty road takes me/ to the grain field of the mount/ the wind smelled like tea/ the mount was full of fog (Ebrahimi, 2013).
Lexical harmony
Lexical harmony “is a type of harmony that is composed of the repetition of two or more grammatical elements that have structure longer than the syllable, and they should be investigated at the level of word, group or even the set of words within a sentence in the form of complete and imperfect similarity (Safavi, 2004). These set of words have significant role in the development of amazement, joy, and elegance resulted from this set. In other words, the words are in the category of voices; some of them are soft and create music and some other are unpleasant to ear. It is the mechanism of poet to use each of them in different situations (Rouhani & Enayati Gadikalani, 2012, cited in Sahba, 2005).
In the child poetry, the repetition of words is used mostly because of the emphasis on meaning and music enrichment of the poetry, and the literary joy that results from it. But, the excessive repetition, leads to the stereotyping of poetic words and makes it boring; although it will not cause semantic problems, it is redundant and reduces the elegance of the language. The discussion of redundancy is relevant to the grammar and semantics, and in the rhetoric, we just deal with its aesthetic aspect in the child poetry. The words are divided into different types, concerning their position in the vocal context of the language:
a) Complete vocal repetition of one linguistic form
In this type of lexical harmony, a word with a constant structured form is repeated several times. In other words, a word is repeated several times in a poem that has different types and may create a figures of speech, regarding the situation of the frequent word, which will be referred in the following sections.
Initial repetition
In this type of lexical harmony, a word is repeated in the initial part of the sentence that indicates the intensity, emphasis and in the following poetry, the repetition of (again), directs both the poet and addressee to a reminiscent past time and develops affection and impression on the addressee:
Again the dusty road/ again the river and song/ again the laughter of flowers/ again the heap and smoke (Ebrahimi, 2011).
Also in the following poetry, the repetition of (you are like), affects the addressee to understand the emphasize of poet on the magnificence and dignity of (you):
You are like the poetry of Hafiz/ you are renewed/ you are like an endless love/ you are like sun/ like fish (Ebrahimi, 2011).
Final repetition
The repetition of words in the final section of the couplets create radif. “Radif, increases the poem’s music enrichment, and also induces reflection on the poet by the limitation that it imposes on him, to create more coordination and association in the poetry”(Shafiee Kadkani & Reza, 1994, p. 140). Since the authenticity of child poetry is with music, poets use radif because it has more efficient musical role and completes the composition of poetry. The child can feel unification between him and the poet, by guessing the radif. By radif, we can also accentuate on illustration or theme. For example, in the following poetry, Ebrahimi has illustrated the prominent status of “تو” (you) (Mansour, one of the friends of poet who was martyred in the war) by utilization of compound radif:
Your sound is lost in the wind/ and the mount is filled with your sound/ and I feel the wind again/ that is full of your words (Ebrahimi, 2011).
In most of his poetry, Ebrahimi has used the verbal radif that makes the text more varied and dynamic:
Morning sat at the end of the alley/ the smell of jasmine blossomed by fresh air/ the branches of silence interfused/ the wind said something on the jasmine’s ear (Ebrahimi, 2013, p. 533)
I write the sky on myself/ my eyes become clear and blue/ I write sun on myself/ my hands turn sunny (Ebrahimi, 2011).
Repetition of successive at the end
In this type of repetition, two similar words are repeated successively at the end of the hemistich or couplet. In the following poetry, the words of (piece) and (drop) are repeated at the end of the couplets.
Drops from her eyebrows the rain, drop by drop
s/he is wearing a cloth shredded and piecemeal (Ebrahimi, 2011).
Repetition of successive at the initial
Ebrahimi has repeated the key words at the beginning of the sentence, in order to inform the addressee about the intensity of the words. Moreover, the repetition of word at the beginning of the sentence, increases the music of the poetry. This repetition can occur within a word; for example, in the following poetry, the term (look) is placed successively in the beginning of the poem, and this repetition makes the addressee aware of the intensity of rain:
Look, look at the rain/ how it showers constantly/ the world has mysteries/ inside itself (Ebrahimi, 2011).
The repetition at the beginning of the sentence can occur within a phrase or compound. In the following poem, the repetition of the phrase (on the labor and grief) shows the intensity of grief mood; in fact, this repetition has transferred the emotional concepts:
On the labor and grief, on the labor and grief/ I was for the school/ open the door to me/ the acquaintance of the school (Ebrahimi, 2013, p. 297).
Also in the following compound:
The autumn has come/ the season of solitude and grief/ the season of constant raining/ the season of drizzled raining (Ebrahimi, 2011).
Repetition in the initial and final
Here a word is placed in the initial and final section of the poem that eloquence scientists call it “metabole”.
I saw two bouquets grew on my two hands
Under the light of sun I sat like a bush
It has the flower of sun with itself but/ there is no flower for us (Ebrahimi, 2011).
The water flowed from the fountain/ a martin drank some water (Ebrahimi, 2013)
Repetition in the final and beginning
A word is placed at the end of the hemistich or couplet and then it comes at the beginning of the hemistich or couplet. The eloquence scientists call it “Epanastrophe”.
The sky turned cloudy again/ again it rained/ the face of the soil/ is tickled by rain (Ebrahimi, 2011).
The moon is in the silence at nights/ our elegant fellowship/ turns elegant and bright/ our hands with its laughter (Ebrahimi, 20110).
From the back of the high mountain/ arrived a hand of light/ it touched the garden/ and the garden arose (Ebrahimi, 2011).
b) Complete vocal repetition of two linguistic forms
This type of harmony means that “in spite of the similarity, vocal, musical, and superficial coordination, the lexical bases may have a type of dichotomy in form, structure, letter, meaning, and arrangement of the phonemes (Agahosseini & Zareh, 2011). This type of harmony includes total pun, compound pun, and literal pun.
Total pun
The importance of the total pun is based on the nature of the music that has created words with common sound in the mind of the poet. The musical value of the total pun in the child poetry is because of the repetition, despite the meaning differences of the two identical words. So, in one side, the music and its melodious sound creates pleasure in child, and from the other side, the meaning differences of two words, makes the child’s mind into mobility. Although the use of total pun in the poetry of Ebrahimi was unconscious, the similarity of two homogenous words has increased the pleasure of perception and the music of poetry:
Again it is opened to me, the doors of the night/ the world of night, is awakened on my mind (Ebrahimi, 2011).
At the back of the door, I saw a garden/ a garden full of spring/ it has thirty fountains in it/ each fountain is in a greensward (Ebrahimi, 2011).
Compound pun
Because of the semi-repetitive nature of the compound pun, it creates music and the child enjoys it without recognizing the artistic value of the compound pun. In the following poetry, (coin) and a part of (insomuch as) are compound puns that the recognition of the literary value of this type is more difficult than the total pun:
A guy was crossing the alley/ gave him a coin/ the coin was insomuch as small that/ it fell from the hands of the old man (Ebrahimi, 2011).
c) Imperfect vocal repetition of two linguistic forms (rhyme, prose riming, and some types of pun)
In this type of harmony, “some words are repeated that they are not exactly the same; but they have similarity in vocal factors and pronunciation. They include rhyme, prose riming, and some types of pun”. (Rouhani & Enayati Gadikalani, 2012, p. 118)
Rhyme
Rhyme is one of the enhancement aspects of the child and juvenile poetry. “Rhyme is the firmness of poem, the divider of couplets, and in fact, it is the device of voice producer” (Shafiee Kadkani & Reza, 1994, p. 64). For this reason, “the rhyme is the base of the child poetry. Today Rhyme does not have much efficacy in the adult poetry, but the child poetry without rhyme is worthless” (Alipoor, 2000, p. 16). In the poems with rhyme, the child is faced with sounds that are repeated regularly and this repetition is interesting for children, because it produces joyful and repetitive music; whether this repetition conforms to the specified rules of rhyme or not. So, it is clear that if we compose a poem without meter for children, they may read it, but the child poetry without meter, rhyme or other homophones is not pleasant for children. Nowadays rhyme may not have much influence on adult poetry, but the child poetry without rhyme has no value, because the mind of the child is familiar with rhyme unconsciously. For this reason, the conversant poets use even compound rhymes and radifs for enhancement of the music of the poetry. Primarily, the children notice rhyme in early childhood and the instructors use rhyme words to enter children into the poetry world (Khalili Jahantig & Zandavani, 2011, p. 128). Despite producing the music of the poetry, rhyme may also be favorable with the content pf poem and be reminder of a special concept. The rhymes of the poems of Ebrahimi are in the form of verb:
When one night, the light moon/ was slept on the bedding of cloud/ I heard a sound/ in my ear that said silently (Ebrahimi, 2011).
And also in the form of noun:
The windows are opened/ towards the spring/ spreaded everywhere/ the carpet of spring (Ebrahimi, 2013).
Pun
The importance of pun in the child poetry is because of the creation of melodious voice by utilization of the musical repetition. The frequent or homophone words, repeat two imperfect forms of language.
1) Mozare pun
In the mozare pun, the two homogenous words are alike and they differ in just one letter. This similarity creates a soft music:
A hoopoe sat on a stone/ fluttered in the wind (Ebrahimi, 2011).
I think somebody is sitting in my heart/ and is carping for the distance from the flower/ I think somebody is sitting on my mind/ cries and speaks about spring (Ebrahimi, 2011).
2) Redundant pun
In the redundant pun, one congruent word has one additional letter than the other word:
Now is just present time/ it is just now/ and the next minute/ the future will come (Ebrahimi, 2011).
You have given magnificence to the mount/ and you have led it to the sky (Ebrahimi, 2013).
Prose riming
The rhythmic words preserve the musical value of the poetry; for this reason, it has great importance in the child poetry. There are different types of prose riming in the poetry of Ebrahimi that we refer to some of them.
1) Parallel prose riming
It means the words conform both in meter and letter; like [kɑ:r, bɑ:r], [dæst, ʃæst], [xɑ:me, nɑ:me] (Homayi, 1994). The difference of the parallel prose riming and mozareh pun is that the parallel prose riming comes at the end of the sentences or hemistich, but the mozare pun comes at the different sections of the poem or prose. Ebrahimi considers parallel prose riming more than the other types of prose riming:
Over that hill/ stands a shed/ beside the shed/ is a beautiful dragonfly (Ebrahimi, 2011)
When at nights/ the lone moon/ becomes in the sky/ with its light, she composes/ hundred songs about the living (Ebrahimi, 2011).
2) Symmetrical prose riming
Here, the counterpart words are similar in meter, but differ in the letter; like, [kɑ:r, kɑ:m [bæhɑ: r, næhɑ:l], [nɑ: le, nɑ: me] (Homei, 1994, p. 43). This type of pun is not used much in the poetry of Ebrahimi and we can declare that its use is unconscious in his poetry:
I have not forgot that a day/ that a snake become my poet/ I gave goat milk to it/ and it believed me with its look (Ebrahimi, 2011).
3) Lop-sided prose riming
Here, the words are similar in letter but differ in meter; like [ʃekɑ:r,kɑ:r], [ʃekæst, dæst], [neʃɑ:ne, ʃɑ:ne] (Homayi, 1994). The utilization of this type of prose riming is more conscious than the symmetrical prose riming and has more artistic value:
From the sound of the stick/ the pigeon stares at him for a while (Ebrahimi, 2011).
In your voice a streamlet is running/ your hands smell olive (Ebrahimi, 2013).
4) Binary prose riming
Here the words with prose riming are adjacent in the prose or poem.
Come our eyes that/ the spring is waiting for us/ come that your footstep/ is our spring (Ebrahimi, 2011).
A dog was crossing the alley/ and his foot stem was remained on the snow (Ebrahimi, 2011).
Syntactic harmony
The most difficult de familiarizing is something that occurs in the syntactic of language; because the syntactic facility of each language, the authority domain and syntactic selection into another language is one of the limited facilities (Shafiee Kadkani & Reza, 1994). Syntactic harmony is one of these de familiarizing factors that in which the similar syntactic form is repeated along with the similar vocal form. This type of harmony is composed of the repetition of syntactic production of sentence with two techniques of association and substitution. “The repetition of structure in the meaning of the arrangement of grammatical features of language is used in the status of lexis (Safavi, 2004)
Syntactic association
Each sentence is composed of terms that have a syntactic role. In some cases, a syntactic role is repeated in the sentence. In other words, two or more terms take a similar role that is called “syntactic association”. By this association, some figures of speech like age, conglobation, and epanados are created.
Age
It is the repetition of several singular words that then a verb is brought for all of them (Homayi, 1994). By utilizing age, Ebrahimi not only has used the repetition of syntactic association, but also he has avoided the redundant verb and has increased the literary value by mentioning sequential words that have meaning harmony with each other:
I see with you/ everything in the world/ the last day and the last night/ today and tomorrow (Ebrahimi, 2011).
Today I will compose a poem/ about cloud, wind, soil, and rain (Ebrahimi, 2011).
The sky, mount, and valley/ you created, the God (Ebrahimi, 2011).
The stone and ground are dry/ the bramble and milk vetch dry/ the sun flaring/ my lips thirsty (Ebrahimi, 2011).
2) Conglobation
In this figure of speech, “for one word, different and successive adjectives are brought” (Homayi, 1994, p. 292). Because of the specific sprit of the child that deals more with nature, Ebrahimi has utilized the natural concepts in his descriptions and use of the conglobation and by this, he has expressed his affections:
Your look is a good division/ your look is like a waterfall/ your look is an amour butterfly/ your look is like spring (Ebrahimi, 2013).
Your sound is soppy under the rain/ your sound is like a breeze under the mount/ your soul is the meaning of the sparrow fly/ your sound means much and dense/ your sound under the autumn rain (Ebrahimi, 2011).
3) Epanados (Laf-o-nashr)
The epanados “in the rhetoric figure means to bring several words in a sentence, then bring several related adjectives or verbs for each of the words but do not mention for example which adjective relates to which noun, in fact leave its perception on the addressee. The word that has come at the first is called “laf” and the word that is referred to them is called “nashr” (Homayi, 1994). The existence of epanados in the child poetry makes the curious child follow the subject, so the joy of understanding the context after the effort is doubled.
On the ground, you have here/ a sky that is sea/ full of fish, but no/ each one is a beautiful moon (Ebrahimi, 2011).
Figure of substitution
In the figure of substitution, “by figure displacement of the main elements of the sentence, a sentence is created that is in syntactic harmony with the initial sentence” (Rouhani & Enayat Gadikalani, 2012, p. 72). The importance of this syntactic harmony is more than the association; because, in the association, there is not any word repetition. But in the substitution, this repetition is seen and its worth in the child poetry is because of the repetition of words that increases the music of poem. There are different examples of figure substitution in the poetry of Ebrahimi that we can explain it with the poet’s “feeling of unity and sympathy”; in a way that, by utilization of this type of vocal structure, the poet has sympathized between him and the nature or other person. For example, in the following poems, “staring at each other” and “becoming part of each other” is the result of this sympathy:
Her eyes are staring at me/ my eyes staring at her (Ebrahimi, 2011).
The shading comes near/ next to me; affront/ she stares at me/ and I stare at her (Ebrahimi, 2013, p. 53)
When the swallow flies/ I become like her/ she becomes part of me/ and I become part of her (Ebrahimi, 2011).
From the distant gardens/ I have brought a flower/ I have brought with flower/ the song of the nightingale (Ebrahimi, 2011).
Conclusions
Considering the child’s reflection, the growth of the language and emotional requirements make the poet link the musical elements and syntactic structure to the artistic form (preserving the simplicity of the language), which differentiates the child and adult poetry; so, the intermingled structure and meaning, meaning comprehension, and literal joy is duplicated. The vocal structure, as an elegant technique has a special appearance in the child poetry of Jafar Ebrahimi and it is used in the realization of meaning in three levels of vocal, lexical, and syntactic; hence, the role and importance of vocal structure is in infusion of the concepts and creation of music. In the level of vocal harmony, the meter of prosodic elements plays a significant role in the perception of poem from children; therefore, Ebrahimi has endeavored to use the frequent meters in the form of two or three, regarding the content of the poem, and relegate the repetition of consonants and vowels to the affection and thought. In the level of lexical harmony, a complete vocal repetition of one linguistic form or the imperfect vocal repetition of two linguistic forms is created, and since a meaningful word is repeated, Ebrahimi has used this level for emphasizing special meaning and infusion of the meaning. For example, in the complete pun, the aesthetic and artistic function of this figure of speech is related completely to the meaning, and when the reader or addressee sees the identical repetition of words in the sentence, in the second pun, they search the meaning that they had understood in the first stage of pun; but the context makes them aware that the intention of the poet is another meaning. Here the addressee catches this artistic deception and enjoys the detection of this technique. In the poetry of Ebrahimi, the artistic technique of syntactic association is less evident than the substitution; because in the syntactic substitution, the words are repeated but in the syntactic association, this is not the case.
