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nahii.n khel ai "Daag" yaaro.n se kah do
ke aatii hai urduu zubaa.N aate aate
( 'Dagh' say to the friends that it is no play
To learn Urdu is to learn slowly)
I personally believe that there is no emotion in the whole human existence for which there are not atleast a couple of couplets in Urdu poetry.Known as 'shayeri' in Urdu,the most important form of Urdu poetry is the 'ghazal'.'Ghazal' literally means talking to the beloved.There are many other forms of 'shayeri' too like 'mathnawi','nazm','marsiyaa','qitaa' ,'qaseeda' etc. but none of them is as beautiful and enchanting as the ghazal is.Every 'shayer' (poet) has composed atleast some of his distinctive ghazals.A ghazal consists of various couplets,and each couplet is unique in its own sense.Every couplet is a complete entity on its own and does not depend upon other couplets for its meaning.Every 'sher'(couplet) of a ghazal is said in a particular meter which is known as the 'baher'. There are many 'bahers' in Urdu and the greats were masters in all of them.Both the lines of the first couplet rhyme with each other and the second line of all the remaining couplets rhyme with the first couplet.There should be minimum of 5 couplets in a ghazal and there is no limit on the maximum number of couplets.There has been a definite tradition of keeping the number of couplets odd.
In the beginning Urdu poetry flourished under the patronage of royal courts of the Indian sub-continent notably kingdoms of Deccan India,Delhi and Lucknow.Most of the critics consider Quli Qutub Shah (1565-1611) as the first poet of Urdu poetry.There is a long list of illustrious poets after him with Ghalib arguably the best.I consider Iqbal as the most inspiring and Faiz as the most relevant.There have been various thought processes in the Urdu poetry with each having definite aims and aspirations.
It is indeed a very difficult task to list the major Urdu poets because every poet has influnced the course of the poetry in some way or the other.But then,there have been a few who stand out.Among the masters I count Meer Taqi Meer(1722-1810), Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib(1797-1869),Momin Khan Momin(1800-1831), Mirza Dagh Dehlvi(1831-1905).
Some of the great Urdu poets of the last century were Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938),Jigar Muradabadi(1890-1960),Faiz Ahmad Faiz (1911-1984),Sahir Ludhianvi(1921-1980),Josh Malihabadi (1838-1982), Ali Sardar Jafri (1913-200) amongst others.
A few well known contemporary poets are Ahmed Faraz (b.1931),Nida Fazli (b.1938),Javed Akhtar(b.1945) etc.
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