How to Write a Ghazal
Overview
A brief background is presented on the ghazal form before assigning students to create their own poem.
What is a ghazal?
A ghazal is an Arabic form of poetry that has two major rules.
- The poem contains five or more couplets. (Remember that a couplet is a two-lined stanza within a poem).
- The poem contains a rhyme or repeated refrain. The first couplet contains the rhyme or repeated refrain at the end of both lines. For every stanza after; however, the refrain is only repeated at the end of the second line.
Click here to view Agha Shahid Ali's ghazal "Tonight."
*Note that each stanza is two lines. Did you pick up on the refrain in the poem?
More About the Ghazal
Your Assignment
Now that you've learned a bit about the background of the ghazal, your assignment is to now create your own. Please note that there is more than one way to compose a ghazal. As you noted in Sheniz Janmohamed's lecture, she follows some more traditional rules of the form while there are other variations in the additional course resources. I ask that you follow the following two rules:
- Your poem should contain five or more couplets.
- The poem contains a rhyme or repeated refrain. The first couplet contains the rhyme or repeated refrain at the end of both lines. For every stanza after; however, the refrain is only repeated at the end of the second line.
Remember, we are experimenting with a variety of poetic forms throughout this unit. Some you will love, some not so much. That's okay. Do the best you can and have fun!
Reach out to your course instructor for help. We will have the opportunity to share out our ghazals as well as our challenges and celebrations in our writing processes tomorrow in class.
Happy writing!