There are various forms of poetry used for writing poems, among which the most popular forms are Ghazal, Nazm, Kavita and Doha. These forms of poetries are described below.
Ghazal : Ghazal is a form of poetry which is a collection of various sher (couplets). Each sher consist of two lines, each lines are called misra. The first misra of a sher is called misra-e-oolah and the second misra is called misra-e-saani. The first sher of a ghazal is called matla and the last sher in which poet is using his/her pen name is called maqta. Pen name of a poet is called ‘takhallus’. In ghazal each sher has to be complete in itself and should convey the whole story. Different sher may discuss different topics in the same ghazal. In ghazals, poet has to follow certain rules, which is the proper use of qafiya, radeef and behr (meter).
Qaafiya is the pattern of rhyming words in each sher which comes before radeef. Although few ghazals have been written without radeef also but most of the ghazals are having radeef in it while the rule of kaafiya has to be followed in all the ghazals. In matla i.e first sher of a ghazal we are having radeef and kafiya in both the line of a sher, while in rest of the ghazal the pattern of radeef and kaafiya will be only in the second line of the sher i.e in misra-e-saani. Example of a ghazal from Daagh Dehlvi is given below
Here maan, imaan, ehsaan, mehmaan, pehchaan and samaan are rhyming words which is called Qafiya. “to gaya” is repeted in all the sher are radeef. First sher (i.e) matla has both misra with radeef and qafiya i.e. “maan to gaya” and “imaan to gaya”. All other sher are having only second sher with radeef and qafiya. Although some poets have written few ghazals with radeef and qafiya in all the lines, but above given ghazal is the correct pattern of writing a ghazal.
The other important and most difficult rule of a ghazal is the pattern of behr (meter). In plain terms we can say that all the misra in a ghazal should be of equal length or must have approximately equal number of words. Here we are not explaining behr in details but trying to give a simple definition of the same. There are various number of classical behr which are normally used by poets while writing ghazals.. For example a sher of meer is given below in small behr and a sher of Jawed akhtar in a very long behr.
dekh to dil ki jaañ se uThtā hai
ye dhuāñ sā kahāñ se uThtā hai
Poet : Mir Taqi Meer (small behr)
zarā mausam to badlā hai magar peḌoñ kī shāḳhoñ par na.e pattoñ ke aane meñ abhī kuchh din lageñge
bahut se zard chehroñ par ġhubār-e-ġham hai kam be-shak par un ko muskurāne meñ abhī kuchh din lageñge
Poet : Jawed Akhtar (Very Long Behr)
A ghazal can be written without radeef or without maqta, but ghazal cannot be written without proper use of qafiya and behr.
Nazm : Nazm is a form of poetry which may or may not follow the rule of radeef qafiya and behr.
The main difference between Ghazal and Nazm is that a ghazal does not follow a single theme and each sher discuss different topics, while a nazm follows a single theme and the whole nazm talks about a single topic only. In ghazal there are various rules which needs to be followed but nazm gives lots of freedom to the poets. There are various forms of nazm which may or may not have qafiya, there can be different sets of meter or combination of meter which can be used. Broadly we can classify nazm in three categories as given below.
- Paaband Nazm: In this type of nazm we can see a poem written on a single topic but it follows the rule of radeef or qafiya and meter. It is also not necessary to have a sher of two lines only. It may contain sher of more than two lines as well which is not allowed in a ghazal. Paaband Nazm of Faiz Ahmed Faiz is given below with qafiya and meter. Radeef is not there in the below nazm.
Hayn labrayz aahaon say thandee hawaayayn
Udaasi mayn doobee huee hayn ghataayayn
Muhabbat ki dunya pay shaam aa chukee haye,
Sia poash hayn zindagee kee fizaayayn
Machaltee hayn seenay mayn laakh aarzooayn
Tadapti hayn ankhaon mayn laakh iltejayayn!
Taghaaful ki aaghoash mayn so rahay hayn,
Tumharay sitam, aur mayree wafaayayn!
Magar phir bhi aye mayray masoom qaatil,
Tumhayn pyaar kartee hayn mayree duaayayn!
- Azaad Nazm : A nazm without proper pattern or complete absence of radeef/qafiya are called azad nazm or free verses. It may not have a single behr but can have a combination of various behr. Example of Azaad nazm is given below.
Gayay ho jabsay tum jaanaaN
Mayra dil nahee lagta
Ki saar