Ugliness has been a concept and image that shapes its meaning and definition through beauty. Throughout the ages, the definition of ugliness has also been made as the opposite of beauty. Ugliness, which has been defined and described as the opposite of beauty since the first examples in world literature, has changed its own image in parallel with the change in the understanding of beauty. The understanding of ugliness in classical Turkish poetry contains the reflections of this general tendency. However, classical poetry also presents a characteristic and different picture of ugliness with the effect of its own dynamics. In classical poetry, it can be said that moral understanding is as determinant as physical perception in the emergence of this characteristic picture. In this article, it is aimed to draw a general framework on the understanding of ugliness in literary texts. Afterwards, the physical limits of the ugly understanding in classical Turkish poetry were revealed. In classical Turkish poetry, it was also emphasized with which concepts the perception and understanding of ugliness beyond physical boundaries are discussed.

Keywords: classical Turkish poetry, ugly, ugliness