Abstract:

Many studies on Mehmet Akif Ersoy, also known as "Homeland Poet" and "National Poet" in Turkish literature, show that he had a character that is close to realism and idealism and that he often dealt with the social issues primarily in his work. Mehmet Akif collected all his poems in his work called Safahat, which consists of seven books. The primary concept that he values most is the family that constitutes the core of society as the most basic milestone vague. In his work, in which he analyzed in depth the various situations of the members of the family institution, Akif focused especially on the "child" and "young" individuals in this institution and the need for "education" of the new generation formed by them. Akif has a keen interest in children and young people in particular because knowing and serving a society is only possible through knowing and understanding the children. Periods in which the individual evolves from a child to a teenager to youth and from there to an adult have a critical meaning for the child, his/her family and the society. Being aware of this, Akif has been in an effort to create the ideal youth and thus to create the ideal society by emphasizing the family institution, which he has almost sanctified in his works and defined as the "palace of paradise". In this compilation-type study, based on literature review and literature analysis as methodology, Mehmet Akif Ersoy's Safahat is taken as basis and this study tries to evaluate the concepts of "family", "child", "youth" and "education", which are considered to be important in the progress of society from Akif's perspective and aims to reveal the importance of these concepts. When Mehmet Akif Ersoy's perspective on the aforementioned social concepts is examined both from his own line of work and through the work created about him, it seems possible to say that these views are still valid today and involve suggestions that can be considered as solutions to many existing social and educational problems.