Ghazals 🔗

Overview

Originating in 7th century Arabia, this form of shairi has historically focused on matters of love (spiritual or worldy), with a particular emphasis on separation and reunification with the beloved. While the technical constraints are strict, ghazals do not need to have a single topic running through the poem. Rather, they emphasize a tone or a mood more than any narrative continuity. Often abstract, ghazals employ contradictions, opposites and multiplicities of meaning.

Common themes portrayed in Urdu ghazals:

• Lover and beloved
• Seperation and reunion  (hijr aur wisaal)
• Wordly love and spiritual love  (ishq-e-mijazi, ishq-e-haqiqi)
• Self and society 
• Language and inneffability
• Symbol and referrant 

Classical imagery evoked in Urdu ghazals:

• Gardens, flowers and songbirds
• Moths and flames
• Lamps and candles
• Wine, goblets and taverns
• Dawn and dusk
• Light and dark
• Mirrors and reflections
• Rivers and oceans 

Technicalities

Ghazals are usually composed of five to fifteen shers. The poetic devices of the ghazal are illustrated in the following ghazal by Qateel Shifai:

Radeef (ردیف) is the repeating word in the second misrah of every sher of the ghazal.

Qaafiya ( قافیہ) is the rhyming suffix, word or pattern of words that precedes the radeef.   

Matlah is the first sher of the ghazal, where the radeef is present at the end of both misrahs, and maqta is the last sher of the ghazal, which may include the takhalus, or pen name, of the poet.

Bahr is the meter of the shairi. See the appendix for an in depth description of bahr.

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Nazms 🔗

The nazm is an umbrella term that includes all free verse poems without any explicit rules or structures in form. Often they are written on a particular topic or set of topics, and may have more narrative continuity than ghazals. Though there arent any formal constraints, the following poetic devices are used in nazms:

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Writing Prompts 🔗

Tools

Rekhta Taqti
Rekhta Qaafiya

Prompt 1 

Urdu has many different words for, and ways of describing, fire. Listen to this description of four Urdu words that describe different intensities of fire. Can you write a sher (or the first line of a nazm) that incorporates one of these words? 

Example Shers

raushan jamāl-e-yār se hai anjuman tamām

dahkā huā hai ātish-e-gul se chaman tamām

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jalte diyoñ meñ jalte gharoñ jaisī zau kahāñ

sarkār raushnī kā mazā ham se pūchhiye

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apne jalne kā hamesha se tamāshā.ī huuñ

aag ye kis ne lagā.ī mujhe ma.alūm nahīñ

kabhī kartī hai alaao raushan

bheḌiye duur bhagāne ke liye

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jalā hai jism jahāñ dil bhī jal gayā hogā

kuredte ho jo ab raakh justujū kyā hai

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Qaafiya + Radeef templates:

___bujh chuki hai    ______ ki roshni

___dehekti rahi   ______ se jali

Word bank

Charaagh - oil lamp

Aatish - fire

Diya - lamp

Dhuan - smoke

Sholay -  flame, flash

Angaara - embers

Chingari - spark

Coila - coal

Raakh - ash

Alaao - bonfire

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Prompt 2 

Write about a metamorphosis. Think of a moment in time when life suddenly changed  - or the realization of a slower shift. How were things before, during and after? Consider various subjects: the self, the beloved, the environment, society, and so on. 

Example shers

maiñ andar se kahīñ tabdīl honā chāhtā thā 

purānī keñchulī meñ hī nayā honā thā mujh ko 

Qaafiya + Radeef templates:

____ guzraa

____ ki tabdili 

Word bank

Tabdeel

Tahawul

Tajdid 

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Prompt 3

Seeking and longing are two common themes in classical shairi. Write about longing - whether its about another person, an abstract ideal, or a spiritual destination. Was it something achieved or unfulfilled? Was the outcome as expected or different form what was imagined? 

Appendix 🔗

Principles of Metric Pattern in Urdu Poetry

Bahr: The Backbone of Shaa’irii