At the beginning of the 20th century, folklore motifs in Azerbaijani poetry
attract more attention in the context of form, image and genre. In other words, artistic
examples written using folk poetry images occupy a leading place in the creativity of
individual artists.In the mentioned period, the main creative directions of literature,
the enlightened-realist, critical-realist and romantic poetry, were mainly addressed by
the genre problem about the tradition. In this sense, genre issues are at the forefront
of turning to folklore traditions in poetry and creatively using them.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the analysis of Azerbaijani poetry in terms
of genre specificity clearly shows that the creation of new poetic examples in this
period was not conditioned only by the relevance of the topic, content and problem,
as well as by relying on tradition, at the same time, in the consistent appeal to new
literary genres, has gained uniqueness in genre searches.
Compared to other literary genres, poetry is distinguished by its variety and
variety of genres from the point of view of genre. This is because poetry in
Azerbaijani literature, as in the entire East-Islamic world, rests on older roots, unlike
certain literary types, and on the other hand, it is caused by the fact that it has unique
poetic shades in terms of form and image.
The interpretation and solution of the problem in the context of the artistic
heritage of prominent creators of Azerbaijani poetry such as Huseyn Javid, Abbas
Sahhat, Ahmet Javad allows us to reveal a number of important points related to
folklore sources and to come to necessary conclusions. Along with examples of
divan literature in the works of these authors, the occurrence of works written in folk
poetry genres such as song, goshma, tajnis, garayli, bayati is interpreted as a
manifestation of the diversity of forms and genres of their poetry. In addition to the
originality of the subject, content, and form in the poems, the versatility and diversity
of the genre originate first of all from the rich traditions of folklore.
Huseyn Javid's “My God”, ”Shepherd's Song”, Abbas Sahhat's “Lullaby”,
“Mother and Son”, “The Chicks”, “Birds” and “The Tale of Flowers” are the product
of serious and effective creative searches, were highly valued by the literary critics of
the time. Ahmet Javad's “Morning-morning”, “No way”, “I am a victim”, “I come
from Ganja”, “Bride”, “Wounded bird”, “Remained”, “Morning Star”, “Help”,
“Evenings”, “My eyes saw, my heart loved”, and other poems are closely related to
examples of Azerbaijani folk literature in terms of subject and content, as well as
form and image.
In general, the intensification of appeal to folklore motifs and images of folk
poetry in Azerbaijani literature at the beginning of the 20th century is characterized as
a social demand of the time. Also, the important influence of enlightened realism,
which is one of the leading currents of the period, should not be forgotten here. It is
worth noting that in the works created directly from folklore, there are wide
opportunities for the fluent and concrete expression of thoughts and ideas, as well as
the simplicity of language and style.
In addition to all this, there is a serious need to dwell on the points that the
issues of tradition and innovation play an important role in the basis of continuous
appeal to the genres, forms and images of folk poetry in Azerbaijani poetry at the
beginning of the 20th century.