Ghazal

The couplet form of Persian, Urdu, and Arabic love-mystical verse, each couplet an independent jewel on a shared rhyme.

Specifications & Metrics

type

Fixed poetic form

origin

7th-century Arabia

originator

Pre-Islamic Arabic poets (Umar ibn Abi Rabi'a and successors)

meter

Monorhyme with radif (refrain); varying metre

Core Principles & Analysis

• Each couplet stands alone; the poet signs the final couplet by name (maqta).
• Rumi and Hafez made the Persian ghazal a vehicle of mystical love.
• Agha Shahid Ali brought a strict English ghazal into modern American poetry.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Ghazal