Ghazal: meaning, theme and appreciation
The Ghazal section tests whether you can read a sher as a self-contained unit and can use the correct terminology of the form while explaining it.
Core terms and how they are checked
- Sher and misra: the couplet and its two lines.
- Matla: the first sher, where both misras carry the radeef and qafiya.
- Maqta: the closing sher, often carrying the poet's takhallus.
- Radeef: the word or phrase repeated at the end of the second misra of every sher (and at the end of the matla's first misra).
- Qafiya: the rhyming element immediately before the radeef.
- Beher: the metre; all shers of one ghazal share it.
- Taghazzul: the opening love-lyric mood, which may later shift to Sufi or moral reflection (ishq-e-majazi against ishq-e-haqiqi).
Worked example
Sher: 'Hazaron khwahishein aisi ke har khwahish pe dam nikle / bahut nikle mere armaan lekin phir bhi kam nikle.' To identify the radeef, look at the closing words of the second misra: 'nikle' recurs, so radeef = nikle. The rhyming words just before it are 'dam' and 'kam' - that is the qafiya. The explanation then adds that each sher stands alone: sher one is about the danger of desire, sher two about desire remaining unfulfilled.
Traps that cost marks
- Swapping radeef and qafiya - the radeef repeats, the qafiya rhymes.
- Linking all shers as one continuous narrative; a ghazal's shers are independent in theme.
- Reducing the theme to 'love' and ignoring the poet's reflective or Sufi layer.
- Naming the takhallus without locating the maqta.
- Appreciation written as pure translation with no comment on tone or device.