The Ghazal: The Listener’s Story
What’s unique about the Ghazal is how the poems seem very much for both the poet and the listener. While it could be argued that technically all poetry is for the listener as they are left to form their own interpretations, the Ghazal is different in the extent to which the audience is involved. When being recited at a mushaira, the Ghazal is meant to be recited back to the speaker. In Shahid Ali’s words, “This back and forth creates an immensely seductive tension because everyone is waiting to see how the suspense will be resolved. . . .” (213). While personally, I don’t know if I’d say “seductive” is the best-fitting word, it’s at the very least enthralling, and thus, involves the audience all the more. It seems that by hearing the piece in your own voice, you become more entwined with the story of the Ghazal.
Furthermore, I also get the sense that, while not explicitly stated, the Ghazal is meant to be a bit of a cyclic reflection on life. It’s said that “with the exception of the first and last couplets, the poem would not in any way suffer by a rearrangement of the couplets. Nor . . . if one would simply delete some. . . . Do such freedoms frighten some of us?” (Shahid Ali 212). While it may be reaching, my immediate thought upon reading this was that this factor of the Ghazal is meant to show the audience how the ups and downs of life aren’t worth the obsessive worry. That how often you’re improving or declining in life isn’t nearly as important as making peace with the journey because, in the end (Does that phrase sound familiar?), the start and finish of our lives lead back into each other as a natural, cyclic process. It’s as though the structure of the Ghazal reminds us that all is well when we can have faith in the process, although it’s never easy to do so. And so, by asking the reader if it frightens us, the writer emphasizes how difficult yet crucial being able to make peace with life and with yourself can be — to be able to wield this sort of blind faith against the trivial worries of life.
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Shahid Ali, Agha. “Ghazal: To Be Teased into DisUnity.” An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art. Eds Annie Finch and Kathrine Varnes. U of Michigan P, 2002. pp. 210–216.
