A ghazal is a traditional lyric poem made of independent couplets joined by a repeated rhyme-and-refrain pattern. It often explores longing, love, separation, spiritual desire, grief, beauty, memory, or the ache of what cannot be fully possessed. The couplets may seem separate from one another, but they are linked by mood, image, music, and repetition. It is not a narrative poem in the usual sense. It does not need to tell a story from beginning to end. Instead, each couplet stands like a polished fragment, complete in itself, while the repeated refrain gathers the separate pieces into one emotional whole. It is a poem composed of self-contained couplets. The first couplet establishes a rhyme and refrain. This refrain then returns at the end of the second line of each following couplet. The rhyme immediately before the refrain also repeats in sound.

The repeated refrain is called the radif. The rhyme before the refrain is called the qafia. The opening couplet is called the matla.
The closing couplet, which may include the poet’s name or pen name, is called the maqta. A single couplet in a ghazal may be called a sher.

A ghazal often includes, a minimum of five couplets. Couplets that are grammatically and emotionally complete. A repeated refrain, or radif, at the end of both lines of the first couplet and at the end of the second line of every later couplet. A rhyme, or qafia, immediately before the refrain. Lines of roughly equal length.

A lyrical, musical, or meditative tone. Themes of longing, absence, love, loss, spiritual hunger, beauty, memory, or separation. A final couplet that may include the poet’s name, signature, or self-address. The ghazal often creates unity through repetition rather than plot. Its power comes from recurrence, echo, and emotional accumulation.

To write a ghazal, use the following constraints: Write at least five couplets. Make each couplet able to stand alone. Choose a repeated refrain, called the radif. Choose a rhyme sound, called the qafia, to appear immediately before the refrain. Use both qafia and radif at the end of both lines in the first couplet. Use qafia and radif at the end of the second line of every following couplet. Keep the lines relatively even in length. In the final couplet, optionally include the poet’s name, pen name, or a self-reference. Avoid making the poem depend too heavily on a single linear story.

How to Write the Form

First, choose the emotional center of the poem. A ghazal often begins with longing, unanswered love, grief, prayer, exile, beauty, memory, or spiritual hunger. Second, choose a refrain. The refrain should be short enough to repeat gracefully. Examples: “in the rain,” “of the moon,” “without you,” “at the door,” “in silence,” or “again.” Third, choose rhyming words that can appear immediately before the refrain. For example, if the refrain is “in the rain,” possible qafia words might be remain, pain, chain, plain, grain, again. Fourth, write the opening couplet using the qafia and radif at the end of both lines. Fifth, write each later couplet as a complete thought, image, or emotional turn. Each second line must end with the qafia and radif. Sixth, close with a couplet that deepens the poem. You may include your name, pen name, or a self-address if desired.

The Garden After the Rain

The flowers by the garden wall seem vain in the rain,

Old footsteps soften into pain in the rain.

I mend the wire where the tall lilies lean;

Even petals learn that roots gain in the rain.

A crow flies up from the newly planted row;

Black wings scatter, yet remain in the rain.

The house keeps quiet where you once stood;

Some rooms know how to speak plain in the rain.

No rain leaves the garden unchanged;

The earth receives my shadow, a stain in the rain.

Ever your child, I ask what loss has made;

The garden answers with something green again in the rain.

“The Garden After the Rain” follows the ghazal form by using independent couplets joined by a repeated rhyme-and-refrain pattern. The refrain, or radif, is: in the rain

The qafia, or rhyme before the refrain, includes:

vain / pain / gain / remain / plain / stain / again

The first couplet establishes the pattern by ending both lines with the qafia and radif:

The flowers by the garden wall seem vain in the rain,

Old footsteps soften into pain in the rain.

Each following couplet ends its second line with the same pattern. The couplets are connected by mood and imagery rather than by a single plot. They share rain, loss, rural images, memory, and renewal, but each couplet can stand as its own complete thought.

The final couplet includes “Ever your child,” functioning as a personal signifier or self-address. This loosely follows the maqta convention, where the poet may refer to themselves by name, pen name, signature, or identifying voice near the end.
“The Garden After the Rain” follows the ghazal form by using independent couplets joined by a repeated rhyme-and-refrain pattern. The refrain, or radif, is: in the rain. The qafia, or rhyme before the refrain, includes: pain, remain, lain, plain, fain, again
The first couplet establishes the pattern by ending both lines with the qafia and radif:

A looser English ghazal may keep the repeated refrain but loosen the rhyme before it. This creates a more flexible modern ghazal, though it departs from the strict traditional pattern. A spiritual ghazal may address God, the soul, eternity, exile, or divine longing. A romantic ghazal may focus on the beloved, absence, desire, or separation. A nature ghazal may use repeated natural imagery, such as moonlight, rain, snow, birds, fields, or rivers, to create emotional unity. A WoPoLian ghazal may experiment by using an unusual refrain, such as a mathematical phrase, a color, a sound, a date, or a repeated question.

A ghazal is traditionally strict, but a poet may choose to loosen the form for creative effect. The refrain may be repeated exactly, slightly altered, or echoed in meaning rather than repeated word for word. The qafia may be exact, slant, visual, or conceptual.

However, if both the rhyme and refrain are removed entirely, the poem may no longer feel like a ghazal. The repeated return is the heart of the form. To break the rule well, the poet should first understand the music created by qafia and radif.

The ghazal is a traditional poetic form, it began in Arabic poetry and became especially important in Persian, Urdu, Turkish, and South Asian literary traditions. In English, poets have adapted the form in both strict and loose ways.

A WoPoLian ghazal may create new variations, but the traditional form depends on autonomous couplets, a repeated refrain, a rhyme before the refrain, and a closing turn that may include the poet’s name, signature, or more loosely, a personal signifier.