Journal of the stylistic of Persian poem and prose
volume Number 19، number In Volume 5، August 2026 ، issue Number 123

Analysis of Nonverbal Elements and Their Function in Sohrab Sepehri's Poem "The Traveler" Abstract

Farideh Davoudi Moghadam (Author in Charge)

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Nonverbal communication, which plays a vital role (between 65 and 93 percent) in human interactions, has a fundamental position in the transmission of emotional, existential, and cognitive concepts. Nonverbal theories, due to their emphasis on "sensory lived experience" and "pre-linguistic perception," provide us with new and creative tools for a better and more complete understanding of the text. This research aims to analyze and explain nonverbal elements in Sohrab Sepehri"s poem "The Traveler" in order to determine what achievements and applications the application of this theory has for a deeper understanding and comprehension of this text.

METHODOLOGY: This research was conducted using a comprehensive theoretical framework of nonverbal communication (theories of Mehrabian, McNeil, Ekman, Argyle, Hall, and Knapp) and using the qualitative content analysis method. In this regard, nonverbal signs (including visual-motor, acoustic, ocular, tactile, spatial, olfactory, gustatory, temporal, environmental, and appearance signs) and their nine functions (repetition, contradiction, completion, substitution, emphasis, flow regulation, expression of identity, relationship, and power) have been adapted to poetic verses and images.

FINDINGS: The research findings show that in the poem "The Traveler," there are often nonverbal elements to convey the poet"s general messages to the audience. Sepehri has made abstract concepts such as love, loneliness, sadness, distance, and truth tangible through sensory and physical signs. Analyses indicate that most nonverbal functions are present in this poem. However, the functions of "expression of relationship," "completion," and "substitution" have the highest frequency and play the most practical role in this poem.

CONCLUSION: Sohrab Sepehri"s poem "The Traveler" is more than a literary work; it is a sensory-ideological statement against the dominance of instrumental reason and the inability of referential language to reflect truth, which presents a new ontology to the audience by using non-verbal signs. In this poem, Sepehri, by using various non-verbal communication functions, shows the limitations of stereotypical and referential verbal systems of language and that reaching the truth can be possible through deep observation, listening with the soul"s ear, and true presence in the realm of nature and pure human experiences.

Keyword
Non-verbal elements , Sohrab Sepehri , "The Traveler" poem , visual-kinesthetic signs , sound signs.