This study aims to elucidate the evolution of metaphorical patterns in Forough Farrokhzad’s poetry by analyzing the conceptual metaphors in three of her major works—Another Birth, Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season, and Conquest of the Garden—which are conceptualized in this study as Farrokhzad’s poetic trilogy. The theoretical framework is based on George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory, which views metaphor as a cognitive mechanism through which abstract concepts are understood in terms of embodied experience. The main research questions focus on how the fundamental concepts of life, death, and hope are organized within Farrokhzad’s metaphorical system and how the poet’s intellectual transformation is represented through three overarching metaphorical clusters: life and movement, death and transformation, and hope and liberation. The study adopts a qualitative, analytical-inferential methodology. Through the extraction and classification of metaphorical expressions, it examines the dominant conceptual mappings as well as the mechanisms of highlighting and concealment associated with them. The findings indicate that Farrokhzad’s metaphorical system reflects the evolution of her intellectual outlook: it begins with despair and passivity, expressed through formulations such as “Life is a street with no destination” and “Hope is a mortal being” in The Cold Season, and culminates in cultural deconstruction, the realization of collective consciousness, and deliberate action, represented by the statement “Liberation is the conquest of the forbidden garden” in Conquest of the Garden. By identifying these transformative metaphorical clusters, the study demonstrates that Farrokhzad’s poetry is not merely an expression of personal emotions but also constitutes a profound existential reflection on the condition of the contemporary human being.
. (2026). Conceptual Metaphorical Cluster Analysis in Three Selected Works by Forough Farrokhzad: The Evolution from Existential Despair to Conscious Liberation. (e109254). Persian Literature, (), e109254 https://doi.org/10.22059/jpl.2026.408141.2359
MLA
. "Conceptual Metaphorical Cluster Analysis in Three Selected Works by Forough Farrokhzad: The Evolution from Existential Despair to Conscious Liberation" .e109254 , Persian Literature, , 2026, e109254. doi: 10.22059/jpl.2026.408141.2359
HARVARD
. (2026). 'Conceptual Metaphorical Cluster Analysis in Three Selected Works by Forough Farrokhzad: The Evolution from Existential Despair to Conscious Liberation', Persian Literature, (), e109254. doi: 10.22059/jpl.2026.408141.2359
CHICAGO
, "Conceptual Metaphorical Cluster Analysis in Three Selected Works by Forough Farrokhzad: The Evolution from Existential Despair to Conscious Liberation." Persian Literature, (2026): e109254, doi: 10.22059/jpl.2026.408141.2359
VANCOUVER
. Conceptual Metaphorical Cluster Analysis in Three Selected Works by Forough Farrokhzad: The Evolution from Existential Despair to Conscious Liberation. Persian Literature. 2026;():e109254 (In Persian). doi: 10.22059/jpl.2026.408141.2359