Poetic Form
Ghazal
From Arabic ghazal: talking to women. A dominant form of Urdu and Persian poetry; introduced to German literature by Goethe (West-Östlicher Divan, 1819).
Definition
A lyric form of Arabic-Persian origin: autonomous couplets sharing an end-rhyme and refrain, thematising longing and love.
Example
Hafiz and Rumi are the great Persian masters; Adrienne Rich and Agha Shahid Ali have written powerful English ghazals.