 Aim: What is a ghazal poem and how can we begin to compose one?  Do Now: What does a poem consist of?

 The term Ghazal is of North African and Middle Eastern origin.  Traditionally invoking melancholy, love, longing, and metaphysical questions, and are often sung by Iranian, Indian, and Pakistani musicians.  The form has roots in seventh-century Arabia, and gained prominence in the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century thanks to such Persian poets as Rumi and Hafiz. In the eighteenth-century, the ghazal was used by poets writing in Urdu, a mix of the medieval languages of Northern India, including Persian.Rumi  Other languages that adopted the ghazal include Hindi, Pashto, Turkish, and Hebrew. The German poet and philosopher Goethe experimented with the form, as did the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca.

 The ghazal is composed of a minimum of five couplets—and typically no more than fifteen—that are structurally, thematically, and emotionally autonomous.  A ghazal is a series of couplets. Each couplet is an independent poem, although a thematic continuity may develop. This feature leads to "jumps" between couplets  Each line of the poem must be of the same length, though meter is not imposed in English.  The first couplet introduces a scheme, made up of a rhyme followed by a refrain. Subsequent couplets pick up the same scheme in the second line only, repeating the refrain and rhyming the second line with both lines of the first stanza.

 5 couplets  Same-length lines  1 st couplet rhymes  2 nd line in each couplet ends with the same phrase or line (refrain)  When you are finished, pair up with two other people read and revise. Must be checked and signed off by two people!

 After we died--That was it!--God left us in the dark.  And as we forgot the dark, we forgot even the rain.  Drought was over. Where was I? Drinks were on the house.  For mixers, my love, you’d poured--what?--even the rain.  Of this pear-shaped orange’s perfumed twist, I will say:  Extract Vermouth from the bergamot, even the rain.

 Write a couplet that ends with “I just don’t know”.

 In groups of three, read each other’s ghazals. Answer the following:  Does this poem show rather than tell? Where are moments that this person tells and does not show?  In what ways can this poem improve?  Is the refrain appropriate for this particular poem?  What is the poem’s strength?  Does the poem have an appropriate title?  Is the vocabulary related to the subject and theme of the poem?  Are there broad/general words such as good, bad, fun, happy, pretty, beautiful, sad, etc.?

 Should I stay, or should I go?  I just don’t know.

 Senior Paper due April 27.  MLA Format—double-spaced, times new roman, size 12, black ink, etc.  Work cited page in MLA format  6-8 pages  Title

Work on senior research project. You should get into groups of 3 and read each other’s latest draft on the paper. You must answer the following on their paper.  What is the strongest element of this student’s senior paper?  What is the weakest element in this student’s paper?  How can they improve?  What is lacking?  What should they expand on?