Urdu and Poetry

Urdu has been one of the premier languages of poetry in South Asia, and has developed a rich tradition in a variety of poetic genres. The Ghazal in the Urdu language represents the most popular form of subjective music and poetry. The Nazm in the Urdu simplifies the objective kind, often reserved for narrative, descriptive and satirical purpose.

Under the broad head of the Nazm we may also include the classical forms of poems known by the specific name Masnavi, Marsia or Qasida for all these poems have a single presiding subject, logically developed and concluded. However, these poetic species have an old world about their subject and style, and are different from the modern Nazm, supposed to have come into trend in the later part of the nineteenth century.

The most widely recited, and memorized sort of modern Urdu poetry is Nat. In Nat poetry is written in praise of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). Nat can be of any formal category, but is most commonly in the ghazal form.

The language used in Urdu Nat ranges from the intensely conversational to a highly Purified formal language. The great early 20th century scholar Imam Ahmed Rida Khan, who wrote many of the most well known Nat in Urdu, epitomize this range in a ghazal of nine stanzas in which every stanza contains half a line each of Arabic, Persian, formal Urdu, and conversational Hindi. Urdu is a language, which is full of charm and grace, a language that holds literature so courtly.