So, What Are the Rules?

Good question. I really don't like a rule-bound, cookbook approach to poetic forms. "Give me the template, and I'll fill it in": that might result in a good poem, but it's basically a limiting approach. Sometimes, poets who must have rules say that without rules, a poem has no form. Stop and think a minute: if it exists, it has form of some kind, good, bad, effective, ineffective—but form of some kind.

But don't the "rules" define the form and distinguish a ghazal from, say, a sonnet? Form defines, yes, but the specifics that can be abstracted and put into formulas aren't enough. As a starter, browse some of the linked pages at the right, especially Ghazals in English. Poetic form is elastic, not brittle, malleable, not rigid. When form works right, it give the poet permission, direction: form can inspire the poet and set the direction of the poem. When form doesn't work right, it hobbles the poet, it sets limits to the poet's movement, voice, ability to dance and sing.

Here are a few basics of the ghazal form; not all are necessary in a poem for it to embody the spirit of the ghazal. What is the spirit of the ghazal? An insistent music; repetition with change; radical leaps in theme/image/mood.

Basics:

• Five to twelve couplets (can be longer)
• Each couplet is syntactically and thematically independent (not always)
• The same rhyme occurs throughout in the pattern aa ba ca da ea fa . . .
• The last couplet contains the poet's pen-name or another name
• Both lines of the first couplet and the second line of all the rest end with the same word or phrase (not a feature of the Arabic ghazal and not always required)
• The rhyme occurs just before the repeated word or phrase

For me, the structure of independent couplets is the necessary feature for a poem to be a ghazal. The other features have much value, but the absence of one or more does not keep the poem from being a ghazal (to me).

Note: A poem written in couplets need not be displayed visually in couplet format if the poet wants to use the visual appearance for a specific effect.

If you read some of the poems on The Ghazal Page, you'll get a sense of how I see ghazals: some have very conventional form, with all the parts; others have fewer of the features, and a very few may have nothing in common with ghazals but the leaps between images, themes, moods.

This poem by David Lunde exemplifies the strict form while defining it. Enjoy!