Ghazal A* Analysis by Mr Bruff

Mimi Khalvati 

- Born in 1944 Iran

- Spent her childhood in the Isle of Wight 

- Studied in Switzerland and London 

-Themes of love/feminism/Islam/Women as an invisible voice/ Multi-cultural

Ghazal From 

- rhyming couplet/refrain (repeated phrase or line)

-each line has the same metre (12 syllables) 

-each couplet is a singular thought or image 

Ghazal origins 

-6th-century Arabic verse

- Origins of Islam 

- A ghazal should address a mortal beloved and written from the perspective of the unrequited lover.

- A ghazal should be directed towards God 

If I am the grass and you are the breeze, blow through me.
If I am the rose and you the bird,then woo me.

The female is grass which depends on many other things. It is also rooted in the ground where as the breeze (the man) is moving its abstract because you can't see it but you know it's there. The man seems to be freer and not connected to the earth. 

Again the rose is the women which are rooted in the earth. The rose needs the bird (the man) to survive from pollination. The bird is free. The word 'if suggests there is no real relationship, only it could happen. Suggesting this is all in the poet's imagination.

Religious perspective - she is the earth and grounded and god is the heaven and breath of god blowing through her, he is there but cannot be seen. The wooing of the bird is God calling on her.

If you are the rhyme and I the refrain, don't hang
on my lips, come and I'll come too when you cue me.

There is ambiguity in this line as there is suggestion towards sexual language, poetic structure or stage performance. Here it is suggesting the man is the rhyme which could mean that he provides this poetic artistry and her, the refrain, is just something the reader comes back to. 

Religious perspective - when you cue me is telling god to control her and tell her what to do.

If yours is the iron fist in the velvet glove
when the arrow flies, the heart is pierced, tattoo me.

This is almost an oxymoron statement as iron fist could represent defiance and the velvet glove is sensitivity and the femininity in the woman. This could suggest the man in hard on the inside but sweet on the outside. In the second line, the poet is suggesting that she has been hurt and possibly physically such as a tattoo or internal scars to her heart that cannot be seen on the outside.  

Religious perspective - faith of the heart and tattoo me is the mark of God as one of his.

If mine is the venomous tongue, the serpent's tail,
charmer, use your charm, weave a spell nd subdue me.

Her this suggests that the woman has given out bitter words possibly because she has being hurt. The serpent suggests satan, suggesting she is describing herself as evil. She is calling…