Agha Shahid Ali’s “Call Me Ishmael Tonight”: A Study of Championing Urdu Ghazal in the English Occident

Abstract

Modern poetry in English, unlike other languages, features poetic genres such as epic, ode, ballad, lyric, sonnet, and other. English as a lingua franca has espoused foreign genres: haiku, tanka villanelle, and Ghazal. However, the institution of “Ghazal” was thoroughly a novel experimentation. As an Eastern poetic form, Ghazal strictly adheres to the conventional pattern of meter, rhythm, refrain, and notably nom de plume “takhallus.”. Notably, Agha Shahid Ali initiated the ghazalesque tradition in English with the edition of “Ravishing DisUnities”. Drawing on the same lines, this research paper will deconstruct the elements concerning Ali’s thematic prospects, poetic schematization, pattern formation, and rendering of exotic archetypes in what he calls ‘True or authentic Ghazal’. It delves into an extract, “By Exile” from the collection “Call Me Ishmael Tonight - 2003.” Displaying how, through his unique artistic inclination & craftsmanship, he added to modern American poetry the charisma of ghazal tradition. Nonetheless, as a poet, Ali’s literary accomplishment hinges on introducing the oriental Arabic, Indo-Persian poetic form of Urdu Ghazal to the Occidental galaxy of literature. Skilfully maneuvering the model Urdu as a means for Ghazal, well pioneered insurmountable stature as an ambitious Anglo-Kashmiri poet who revolutionized this conventional form and made it accessible to non-native audiences of English. Indubitably, Ali has firmly established his presence in poetry as a champion of English ghazal, ‘not of an age, but for all times’ as per (Johnsonian locution).