The Ghazal is a verse form that I have not read or analyzed before--in fact, I had never even heard of it until this past week. This surprises me considering how prominent a form the Ghazal apparently is in India and how beautiful a form it is. Nevertheless, I'm at least a little familiar with the form now and have had an overwhelmingly positive experience reading different Ghazals and trying to discern what they mean.
What I consider to be the most special thing about these poems lies in its structure. The fact that each individual Ghazal can either be taken as a whole or examined one couplet at a time because each couplet is considered autonomous makes for not only interesting reading but also allows for the reader to take away what they want from each Ghazal. You can try and dissect the entire poem, or just take each couplet individually at their own value.
Both Gailib's and Faiz's Ghazals have their own style, and for me it came down to a matter of ease of reading. I had a harder time close reading entire poems of Ghalib, but that's not to sat that there weren't individual couplets I took something away from. I found that the poems by Faiz, on the other hand were easier to digest as a whole work and were more uniform in terms of style and theme. My favorite Ghazal in the reading was also by Faiz, "A Prison Daybreak". The combination of personification, brilliant description and a sense of hope despite intense isolation ("Captives watching and waiting for their prince/Whose quiver holds the burning arrows of hope") make for a Ghazal that seems to accurately capture the experience of being in prison.
Reading the few Ghazals that I have has helped to give me a sense of what the tradition entails and how appreciated the medium is in India and the surrounding area. Having the opportunity to expand my knowledge of poetry with a form that is simple yet complicated and made up of couplets that can be considered works of art on their own was definitely a positive experience.
What I consider to be the most special thing about these poems lies in its structure. The fact that each individual Ghazal can either be taken as a whole or examined one couplet at a time because each couplet is considered autonomous makes for not only interesting reading but also allows for the reader to take away what they want from each Ghazal. You can try and dissect the entire poem, or just take each couplet individually at their own value.
Both Gailib's and Faiz's Ghazals have their own style, and for me it came down to a matter of ease of reading. I had a harder time close reading entire poems of Ghalib, but that's not to sat that there weren't individual couplets I took something away from. I found that the poems by Faiz, on the other hand were easier to digest as a whole work and were more uniform in terms of style and theme. My favorite Ghazal in the reading was also by Faiz, "A Prison Daybreak". The combination of personification, brilliant description and a sense of hope despite intense isolation ("Captives watching and waiting for their prince/Whose quiver holds the burning arrows of hope") make for a Ghazal that seems to accurately capture the experience of being in prison.
Reading the few Ghazals that I have has helped to give me a sense of what the tradition entails and how appreciated the medium is in India and the surrounding area. Having the opportunity to expand my knowledge of poetry with a form that is simple yet complicated and made up of couplets that can be considered works of art on their own was definitely a positive experience.
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