Sara’s Ghazal: The Objectification of a Relationship Through Repetition
The use of repetition in the style of Ghazal poetry helps emphasize points that are critical to the overall theme of the poem. By using the constant repetition of keywords and rhyming sounds, the reader remembers what is important, and can interpret the author’s emotions, whether they are anger, sadness or joy. In addition, the final line of Ghazal poetry adds a personal connection to the author, their “signature,” which enhances empathetic views often established from the first couplets of the poem.
To further explain this claim, one can examine the poem titled “Sara’s Ghazal” by Jonathan Musgrove. The text is used to reveal a relationship that is in disarray. The words used in the rhyme scheme represent the struggles of a crumbling relationship. For example,
“Do you belong among incense, silver goblets?
Wind rattling stained glass will not shake this body.
Take me from the dark confessional to beginning
Time before sharp talons of guilt rake this body” (Musgrove 215).
Here, the rhyming words are “rake” and “shake.” These words thus stand out and suggest the experience of feeling raked over or shaken. These are all recurring feelings that come from a strained relationship that is based only on sexual desires and from what we will see, the objectification of the main character.
In addition to this, the repetition of the words “this body” reduces the couple in the poem to nothing more than their own bodies. It serves as a constant reminder of their issues of self-worth. It also elaborates on the idea that this relationship is built on physical attraction with little to no emotional connection.
Another common theme in the Ghazal style is an abrupt final line, in which the repetition pattern remains, but is either slightly more drastic or out of character to the rest of the poem as it uses personal pronouns, or names (Ali 212). An example of this occurs in the final couplet of Sara’s “Ghazal,”
“My prayer is swirling-tongue invitation.
Feel passion, Sara, fucking can’t break this body” (Musgrove 215).
The ending line could be interpreted as one of strength and empowerment. After reading of the pain, the audience of the poem is encouraged by the relationship’s strength and inspired by the way the previous dark rhyming words are now put in the negative as “can’t break.” It reflects that the relationship is going to heal and survive. Yet, this is only one interpretation.
In another sense, by telling Sara to “feel passion,” the reader learns that this passion is no longer there. The demanding tone of this phrase suggests that the relationship is strained and might be at its end; there is no longer any love between the two. Hence, a theme of this poem would be that a relationship cannot survive on physical attraction alone, as that attraction will also disappear without emotional connection between the couple.
This interpretation is not to say that there are not others that belong to this work. That is the beauty of the Ghazal style, the repetition amplifies and builds meaning through the poem.
Ali, Agha Shahid. “Ghazal: To Be Teased into Disunity.” Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art. Edited by Annie Finch and Kathrine Varnes, U of Michigan P, 2002, pp. 210–215.
Musgrove, Jonathan. “Sara’s Ghazal.” An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art. Edited by Anne Finch and Kathrine Varnes, U of Michigan P, 2002, p. 215.
