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

2.  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.

3.  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.

4.  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!

5.  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.

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

7.  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.?

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

10.  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

11. 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?