• A ghazal is composed of couplets, five or more.
• The second line of each couplet (or sher) in a ghazal ends with the repetition of a refrain of one or a few words, known as a radif (although the radif is in fact an optional feature), preceded by a rhyme known as the qaafiyaa. In the first couplet, which introduces the theme, both lines end in the rhyme and refrain so that the ghazal's rhyme scheme is AA BA CA etc
• There can be no enjambement across the couplets in a strict ghazal; each couplet must be a complete sentence (or several sentences) in itself.
• All the couplets, and each line of each couplet, must share the same meter.
• Ghazal is simply the name of a form, and is not language-specific. Ghazals also exist, for example in the Pashtu, Kashmiri, Gujarati and Marathi languages.
• In South Asian languages some ghazals do not have any radif. This is, however, rare. Such ghazals are called "ġair-muraddaf" ghazal. The pre-Islamic Arabian qasida was in monorrhyme; like the rest of the qasida the ghazal itself did not have a radif.
• Although every sher may be an independent poem in itself, it is possible for all the shers to be on the same theme or even have continuity of thought. This is called a musalsal ghazal, or "continuous ghazal". The ghazal "chupke chupke raat din aasUU bahaanaa yaad hai" is a famous example of a musalsal ghazal.
• In modern Urdu poetry, there are a few ghazals which do not follow the restriction that the same beher must be used in both the lines of a sher. But even in these ghazals, qaafiyaa and, usually, radif are present.
• By placing his or her takhallus in the final sher or maqtaa the poet traditionally attempted to secure credit for his or her work. Poets often made elegant use of their takhallus in the maqta. However, some modern ghazals do not have a maqtaa. The name of the poet shaayar is sometimes placed unnaturally in the last sher of the Ghazal.
Reference: http://allpoetry.com/contest/2411175
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24 lines, 12 comments, on Jun 25 2:40 PM. In Nature
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