TEHRAN (IRNA) -- Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said here Sunday evening that poets should endeavor to lift the national spirit and hope in their works.

Addressing a group of Iranian poets and men of literature at an Iftar (fast-breaking) dinner, the ayatollah said Iranian poets, young ones in particular, "should use the rich Farsi language to inject hope to society in its increasing efforts to achieve progress."

Stressing that literature and poetry have achieved higher ground since after the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, the Supreme Leader said men of culture and literature should use the opportunity that has been opened to try and revive revolutionary values and aspirations in their works.