The Ghazal

As I previously mentioned in blog, I recently had some personal exposure to poet Robert Bly. On back to back days I caught him in a poetry panel at Western Missouri State College and then at a reading. Having read some of Bly’s works published in 1997, I was delighted to get the up close and personal contact with him.

It seems to me that Bly’s work has progressed through numerous stages over the years. While I am in no way an expert on Bly, It seems to me that in more recent times he gas perhaps gravitated back into form.

During the Panel discussion at WMSC, Bly made reference to the ghazal. This is a poetic form with an Islamic origin dating back I believe to the 12th century in Persia or what is now Iran. I had only recently read some information on the ghazal, so I was familiar with it in only a vague way. It always amazes me how we go through life without hearing about something, then when we do, it seems to come up again almost instantly and you wonder why without previous references to it, you are now bombarded with it.

On the night of Bly’s reading, he treated us to some examples of this form. They were modified to account for some differences between the English and Arabic languages.

Ghazals were originally written as couplets bound by repeating sound patterns. Most commonly brief. Usually ten or so stanzas, sometimes less. They often begin with a love theme. A unique aspect is that each stanza could stand on it’s own rather than the subject matter being threaded together throughout the poem. The final stanza would address something about the poet’s personal life.

Writing in Arabic, the ghazal would look something like two lines sixteen to eighteen syllables per couplet (stanza) for a total of about thirty-six syllables. This allows for plenty of language to complete a thought. While this works well with the Arabic language, it becomes somewhat unruly in English. Bly modifies his ghazals to usually three lines of eleven or twelve syllables – again achieving something close to thirty thirty-six syllables in all. Otherwise he keeps the concept in line with the origional concept.

I found this form fascinating and something I would like to experiment with in the near future. I’d like to hear from anyone else who has done so.