Ghazal (original) (raw)

In poetry (and as the lyrics in songs), the ghazal is a poetic form consisting of couplets which share a rhyme and a refrain. (The word "ghazal" is pronounced roughly like the English word "guzzle.") The form is ancient, originating in medieval Persian verse; it spread early into India. English language poets have written in the ghazal form mostly from the early twentieth century. The Kashmiri-American poet Agha Shahid Ali was a proponent of the form, both in English and in other languages; he edited a volume of "real ghazals in English."

Details of the form

• The second line of each couplet in a ghazal ends with the repetition of a refrain of one or a few words, preceded by a rhyme (though in a less strict ghazal the rhyme does not need to precede the refrain immediately). In the first couplet, which introduces the theme, both lines end in the rhyme and refrain.
• There can be no enjambment across the couplets in a strict ghazal; each couplet must be a complete sentence (or several sentences) in itself.
• All the couplets, and each line of each couplet, must share the same meter.

References

• Agha Shahid Ali (ed). Ravishing Disunities: Real Ghazals in English. ISBN 0819564370.
• Agha Shahid Ali. Call Me Ishmael Tonight: A Book of Ghazals. ISBN 0393051951.

External links

• Basic Points about the Ghazal, by Agha Shahid Ali
• Urdu Ghazal: An Introduction