Grounded in Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics, this study examines Ahmad Shamloo’s long poem Dar Āstaneh within the framework of literary semantics. Four key components of Gadamer’s theory—pre-understanding, historicity, play/dialogue, and fusion of horizons—serve as the basis of analysis. Employing a qualitative-interpretive method, the research first extracts the poem’s linguistic and imagistic layers, then analyzes them in relation to Gadamerian concepts, with results organized deductively in four stages.  The findings reveal: (1) the mechanism of “linguistic play” draws the reader into a dynamic dialogue and challenges their pre-understandings; (2) the historicity of both text and reader, in the fusion of horizons, generates fluid meaning; (3) this fluidity enables multilayered interpretations and reflects both individual and collective lived experience; (4) the process of “fusion of horizons” demonstrates that meaning emerges as the ongoing dialogue between text and reader. Thus, Gadamer’s hermeneutic approach proves to be an effective tool for analyzing Shamloo’s poetry and for opening new horizons in the critique of contemporary literature.