This course is about the tradition of Urdu poetry in general and the history of similes, metaphors and symbols frequently used throughout the centuries in particular. So the point of focus will be the Urdu poetic diction to find evidence for the claim that essence of poetry lies in the language used and in the poet’s understanding of the associations of words with each other. The elements of Urdu poetic diction will be traced from as far back as the eighteenth century to the present to show how some words and their associations have persisted and some have been used to create poetry by their deliberate violations.
