Qafiya, Radif and a Key That Lists Only Two Devices
You are marking the Ghazal section of a 100-mark model paper. Question 22 prints a couplet and asks: (a) identify the qafiya and the radif (1 mark); (b) name one poetic device used in the couplet and justify it from the words on the page (2 marks). The couplet is:
«Ab mere paas koi yaar nahin hai, Dil mein ik hasrat-e-bahaar nahin hai.»
Script A writes: «radif - yaar; qafiya - nahin hai», then for (b) «tashbeeh, because there is comparison». Script B writes: «qafiya - yaar/bahaar; radif - nahin hai», then for (b) «tajnees, because yaar and bahaar sound similar». Script C gets (a) right and writes for (b) «takrar, because nahin hai is repeated». The key's note for (b) allows only «tashbeeh or mubaligha». You have 45 scripts and a departmental meeting in two hours.
1. Script A has reversed the two terms in part (a). What mark, and what comment?
Read the worked answer
Award 0 for part (a).
The single mark is for distinguishing the two constituents, and A has swapped them: «yaar» is the rhyming word before the refrain (qafiya), while «nahin hai» is the refrain repeated at the end of both lines (radif).
- The error is conceptual, not careless, so write the correct pairing in the margin rather than just a cross.
- Resist «generosity» here. Every later ghazal item assumes the candidate can separate rhyme from refrain; softening the definition now makes those items unmarkable.
- Check A's other ghazal answers. If the swap recurs three or more times, flag it to the teacher as a reteaching point - but do not adjust this mark to compensate.
- Part (b) is marked on its own merits; losing (a) does not automatically cost (b).
2. Script C's device is not in the key's list. How do you mark it, and what do you change for the remaining scripts?
Read the worked answer
Accept «takrar» and award 2/2.
The item says «name one device», so the key's two names are illustrative, not exhaustive. Repetition of the radif is a recognised device, and C has justified it from the printed words - which is precisely what the item tests.
Procedure:
- Amend the key to «any device correctly named and illustrated, e.g. tashbeeh, mubaligha, takrar, izafat».
- Re-scan the 45 scripts for other defensible devices you rejected and credit them on the same test.
- Keep a list of accepted answers with the justification each one requires.
- Refuse bare names with no illustration: that would convert a 2-mark analysis item into a 1-mark labelling item.
Record the amendment, since a parent comparing two scripts will ask why one device outside the key scored and another did not.
3. Script B identifies the constituents correctly but names «tajnees» for part (b). What is the mark and the feedback?
Read the worked answer
Part (a) 1/1; part (b) 0/2; item total 1/3.
- «Tajnees» is wordplay between two words identical or nearly identical in letters, as in a recognised pair like «kamaal»/«jamaal». «Yaar» and «bahaar» share only a rhyme pattern - which is what qafiya already is, not a separate device.
- B has noticed a real similarity but mislabelled it, and the justification shows no grasp of the device named. The 1 mark for naming cannot stand without the 1 mark for support.
- Feedback in one line: «Rhyme is not tajnees; tajnees needs two words built on the same letters.»
- Check whether B uses «tajnees» as a blanket term for any sound similarity elsewhere in the section. If so, note it for the teacher; it is a rote habit, not a one-off slip.