Ghalib Criticism
Mirza Ghalib, born in 1797 in Agra into an aristocratic Muslim family and later residing in Delhi, is celebrated as a preeminent Urdu-language poet of the nineteenth century. Known primarily for his mastery of the ghazal, a short lyric form, Ghalib's oeuvre also includes Persian poetry, letters, and historical writings. His literary journey began when he was a child, and he continued to write throughout his life, even as he faced personal tragedies and political upheavals. His body of work includes the acclaimed Divan-i-Ghalib and his memoir Dastanbu, written during the tumult of the Sepoy Rebellion.
Ghalib's poetry is noted for its thematic innovation and stylistic elegance in the ghazal form, as discussed by K. N. Sud. His unique approach often involved expanding conventional metaphors to reflect his interest in progress and modernity. For instance, he reinterpreted the traditional image of a nightingale singing for a rose to express a desire for a future age, highlighting his focus on change.
Critics such as M. Mujeeb have appraised Ghalib's career by acknowledging his influence on the development of Urdu literature. His letters, written in increasingly colloquial Urdu instead of the formal Persian, set a new precedent for letter-writing style, further solidifying his place in literary history.
The psychological complexity of Ghalib's personality, including aspects of grief and yearning, is a critical focus as seen in Ish Kumar's exploration. Muhammed Sadiq also examines the less attractive traits of Ghalib's character, which influenced his poetic expression.
Though virtually unknown outside Urdu-speaking communities initially, Ghalib's work gained international recognition through the translations and efforts of scholars in the 1960s. His contributions to Urdu literature, particularly in pushing the boundaries of the ghazal and modernizing the use of language in both poetry and letters, mark him as a towering figure in Indian literary history.
Contents
- Principal Works
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Essays
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New Evaluation of Ghalib and His Poetry
(summary)
In the following essay, Wig attempts "to study Ghalib's life from a psychological point of view, in an effort to understand his complex personality and the way it influenced his poetry."
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The Personal and the Universal in Ghalib
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Mujeeb provides a brief appraisal of Ghalib's career as a poet.
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Ghalib's Thought and Poetry
(summary)
In the following essay, Ali provides a short overview of Ghalib's thought and approach to writing poetry.
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Ghalib's Ghazals
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Sud discusses Ghalib's contribution to ghazal writing through an examination of several ghazals, finding him the greatest of all poets of this genre in his originality, subtlety of thought, simplicity, and grace.
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The Poet of Sorrow
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Kumar discusses how Ghalib expressed the grief, yearning, and regret in his own life in his poetry and how his poetry, in turn, helped him overcome his sorrow.
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The Age of Ghalib
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Sadiq stresses the less attractive side of Ghalib's character to bring to light those subconscious traits that largely determined his inner life and therefore his poetry.
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The Ghazal Itself: Translating Ghalib
(summary)
In the following essay, Nairn discusses five couplets belonging to a ghazal Ghalib wrote before he was nineteen, providing both the transcripted Urdu and free prose translation. The ghazal is considered a typical Ghalibean one and, in the earliest manuscript, an autograph.
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New Evaluation of Ghalib and His Poetry
(summary)
- Further Reading