Emotional Dimensions in Bâkî’s Elegy for Sultan Süleyman Kanuni

Abstract

This study explores the manifestations of emotional depth in Bâkî’s elegy for Sultan Süleyman, employing an analytical approach to deconstruct the verses and extract their emotional components. These emotions were then categorized into feelings of pride, grief, anger, consolation, and counsel. The study revealed that grief is not portrayed as a fleeting emotional response, but rather as a complex emotional state intertwined with other feelings such as pride, anger, and consolation.  Bâkî did not merely convey grief but employed symbolic imagery and cosmic metaphors to depict the loss in a comprehensive way, reflecting the depth of his experience in a specific historical and cultural setting. The elegy’s rhetorical and semantic analysis also demonstrated how the poet utilized nature and cosmic symbolism to express loss, giving the text a human and collective dimension that transcends personal sorrow. This type of text serves as both a cultural and literary document reflecting collective consciousness on issues of life, death, and identity. Thus, the study contributes to a contemporary reevaluation of Ottoman literary heritage through a psychological and affective lens. A general introduction to the research topic of the paper should be provided, along with a brief summary of its main results and implications. Kindly ensure the abstract is self-contained and remains readable to a wider audience. The abstract should be an objective representation of the article and it must not contain results that are not presented and substantiated in the main text and should not exaggerate the main conclusions.