He held just one thing back till he got even: the rain. How did the Enemy love you–with earth? air? and fire? Of this pear-shaped orange’s perfumed twist, I will say:Įxtract Vermouth from the bergamot, even the rain. Where was I? Drinks were on the house.įor mixers, my love, you’d poured–what?–even the rain. “our glosses / wanting in this world” “Can you remember?”Īnyone! “when we thought / the poets taught” even the rain?Īfter we died– That was it!-God left us in the dark.Īnd as we forgot the dark, we forgot even the rain.ĭrought was over.
What will suffice for a true-love knot? Even the rain?īut he has bought grief’s lottery, bought even the rain.
Start by reading Agha Shahid Ali’s Even the Rain: Following a structure while making a poem feel natural is tricky. Building Your OwnĪ major challenge to mastering ghazal formation is the repetition. The form has grown in popularity among English writers thanks to the efforts of Ali. 107 poets are featured, including Diane Ackerman, WS Merwin and Paul Muldoon. In 2000, he edited Ravishing Disunities: Real Ghazals in English.
His own poetry melds traditional forms with free verse and celebrates the flavors of multiple languages. He earned a PhD at University of Pennsylvania and an MFA at University of Arizona.Īs a teacher at University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Princeton and Warren Wilson College, Ali exposed his students to the ghazal form in its native tongues and English translations. He attended university in Delhi and Kashmir. He said each ghazal stanza should be like “a stone from a necklace” and should “shine in that vivid isolation.” Agha Shahid AliĪli was born in New Delhi, India, and grew up in Kashmir. Agha Shahid Ali taught the form to American writers. Indian musicians Ravi Shankar and Begum Akhtar brought the ghazal to the ears of Americans in the 1960s. German poet Goethe and Spanish poet Frederico Garcia Lorca experimented with ghazals. The style spread to Northern India in the 18th century, where Ghalib was recognized as the master of the form. Rumi and Hafiz are two of the most popular ghazal-writers from the 13th and 14th centuries. The ghazal’s roots go back to the seventh century. Themes are traditionally melancholy, introspective, loving, longing and thoughtful. The lines should be of similar length and rhythm. The final stanza is a signature, where the author can use his name to seal the poem. This refrain is repeated at the end of each stanza. The first two lines end with the same refrain. Each stanza should be independent, but should tie together with the whole. The ghazal consists of at least five, but often more than fifteeen, two-line stanzas.