Ghazal Prompts
Quick answer: Ghazal prompts honouring the form's rules: autonomous couplets, radif and qafia, longing and argument, and a signature line to close, with refrains to try.
The ghazal is at least a thousand years old and still routinely misunderstood in English. It is not simply a poem of longing; it is a chain of self-contained couplets, each able to stand alone like a pearl on a string, unified not by narrative but by a refrain (the radif) and the rhyme just before it (the qafia). Hafiz, Ghalib and Mir built whole philosophies in two-line rooms. The final couplet traditionally turns inward, naming or nicknaming the poet, a signature woven into the closing.
The form's genius is disjunction: couplet one may address a lover, couplet two a tyrant, couplet three a glass of wine, and the returning refrain makes them rhyme emotionally. Write it as a single story and you have written something else.
The Prompts
Each prompt supplies a radif to hang couplets on, plus territory to roam. Five to nine couplets is a comfortable length; each must survive on its own.
How to Use These
Draft each couplet on its own line of thought, ideally on separate days or at least after standing up and walking about; the form resents continuous composition because continuity is exactly what it refuses. A good working test: shuffle your finished couplets. If the poem breaks, it was secretly a narrative and needs loosening. Keep the radif absolutely identical every time, and let the qafia, the rhyme before it, do the quiet variation work.
Read Agha Shahid Ali's English ghazals to hear the form done with full strictness, then be honest about which rules you are keeping. In revision, cut the weakest couplet entirely rather than repairing it; the string survives losing a pearl. And weigh the closing signature carefully, since naming yourself in a poem is either the truest moment or the most embarrassing, with nothing in between.
What poets can take from this
- Each couplet must stand alone; shuffle them to test for hidden narrative.
- Keep the radif word-for-word identical at every return.
- Let couplets change subject boldly; the refrain provides the unity.
- Cut weak couplets whole instead of mending them.
- Reserve the final couplet for the signature turn toward yourself.
Try it yourself
Write a ghazal with the refrain 'the last train', in which only one couplet is literally about a railway, and the final couplet finds you by name on the platform.
Questions
What are the rules of a ghazal?
Five or more autonomous couplets, a refrain (radif) ending both lines of the first couplet and the second line of every couplet after, preceded by a rhyme (qafia). Traditionally the closing couplet includes the poet's name or persona.
Does a ghazal tell a story?
No, and that is the point. Each couplet is complete in itself, and the poem coheres through refrain, rhyme and mood rather than plot. Think of it as one emotion examined from many unrelated windows.
Can I write a ghazal in English?
Yes; poets like Agha Shahid Ali proved the form travels when its rules are respected. English ghazals work best with a short, flexible refrain and couplets brave enough to leap between subjects.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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