Abstract:

In this study, which is based on the question of whether the first pioneering poets in the history of Turkish literature can also be considered as the “pinnacle writer” and what common criteria should be used when determining the “pinnacle”, it is aimed to seek answers to the same questions in the focus of Mehmet Akif Ersoy's artistry. Considering Mehmet Akif Ersoy's thoughts, his attitude in the time he lived, his sense of art and his whole poems, how his position in Turkish literature was evaluated by both literary historians and other artists were discussed. After evaluating the judgments given by Mehmet Akif's contemporaries and successors based on his life and poems (without reaching definitive conclusions), his influence on artists and common points where he met with important names of Turkish literature were highlighted. The conclusion of the study was that Mehmet Akif Ersoy, like many other Turkish poets, nourished today's poetry and culture, and although they were not friends, for one reason or another, and even though they seemed to be contradictory from time to time, the aim of all of them was to elevate the nation’s language which they wrote in.