This study aims to examine the use of figurative language in Akıl Hastalarının Yazdıkları Şiirler: İnilti (1964), a collection of poems written by patients with mental illness, from a stylistic perspective. Using Leech and Short’s (2007) stylistics checklist, the analysis focuses on tropes of comparison (metaphor, simile, personification, apostrophe), association (metonymy, synecdoche, symbol, allegory), and contrast (paradox, hyperbole, litotes, irony). The qualitative analysis of 112 poems shows dense, and at times unconventional, figurative patterns: metaphors and similes translate inner unrest into concrete images, personification and apostrophe blur the boundary between self and world, and associative or contrastive tropes reorganize fragmented experiences into symbolic forms. The findings suggest that figurative language shapes how patients express their inner lives, consistent with Pennebaker et al.’s (2003) view that unconscious states surface in language and with Bakare’s (2009) observation that poetic expression can disclose aspects of mental life not easily conveyed directly.
Stylistics, figures of speech, tropes, poetry, mentally ill patients.