Sonnet Dethroned, Ghazal Enthroned: A Comparative Analysis of Ghazal Form in American and Persian Poetry

Ghazal, one of the most beautiful poetic forms in Persian poetry that has taken root throughout the world, is, according to historical narratives, much older than the English sonnet. Both forms are considered as distinctive literary forms and follow poetic rules and regulations that are rarely observed in contemporary verse. In the present research, after a brief introduction to the emergence of the Persian ghazal in American literature, the similar and dissimilar points of the two will be counted. The researchers will proceed to investigate how the English sonnet with its age old history has submitted to the Persian form and why American poets have preferred it to the sonnet form. The main issue in this article is to reveal how much ghazal has affected the intellectual atmosphere of the contemporary American poetry and criticism, and how congruent the two sides have become. It follows from the argument that if there is a difference between the two parts, it is not because of ghazal's nature but because of the way it is read and interpreted. The findings confirm that in spite of the common complexities between ghazal and sonnet, and despite the binding rules, the Persian form has been much more appealing to contemporary American poets.