So here’s the first couplet of a Agha Shahid Ali’s poem ‘Tonight’:

There is a rhyme and refrain that appear at the end of both lines of the first couplet. The form is established by the first couplet. If you had met Shahid, you would also have written at least three or four ghazals by now. You might object here-perhaps insisting that free verse poem is no less real that a formal poems, but I promise- if you had met Shahid, you would have instantly been charmed, and agreed instantly. Starting in the 1990s, Agha Shahid Ali began to insist on the formal restraints of what he called the “real” ghazal. The formal aspects of the ghazal were well known in English by the 1920s, however, with the free verse translations of ghazals in the 1960s, most Western writers thought of the ghazal as a way to describe a series of disconnected couplets. It remains popular as a sung form in parts of the world where the distinction between poetry (words for the spoken voice) and song lyrics (words for the sung voice, with specific melody) is not so distinct. The form has roots in Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, and Hebrew. The word ‘ghazal’ is pronounced “guzzle” in some languages and “gu-ZAHL” in others, though in both with a guttural “g” almost like the “ch” in “Bach.” Supposedly, the name comes from the sound a wounded gazelle makes as it dies. In recent years, the singing of Urdu ghazals has become popular, and new Bangla ghazals are also being composed.The ghazal is the oldest poetic form still in use. moniruddin yusuf has also written a number of Bangla ghazals. kazi nazrul islam also wrote Bangla ghazals and greatly popularised them. Atulparasad lived in Lucknow where he learned ghazals. The pioneer of Bangla ghazals was atulprasad sen. The common rhythms used are pashtu and dipavandi. The nature of the ghazal is soft, and, like tappa and thungri, it uses sweet and slow ragas, such as kafi, jhijhint, khamvaj, bhairavi, pilu, varoya. Although the ghazal is about erotic love, it can be on any subject. The poem relies upon word play, delighting the audience with the cleverness of the poet. In the ghazal, words are more important than the tune. While many ghazals are about secular love, many of them are philosophical and express love and devotion towards God in terms of human love. The ghazal is erotic in nature, expressing diverse emotions of lovers: courtship, passion, repentance, apathy, separation, desire, togetherness, etc. The language of the Indian ghazal is mainly urdu, though Indian poets have also written persian ghazals.

Ghazals belong to the former group, with the two main centres located in Delhi and Lucknow.

There are two main branches of Indian songs: Hindustani or North Indian songs and Karnataki or South Indian songs. Ghazal a kind of light song with Persian origin.

Urdu poetry ghazals