Main content

'Ghazal' by Mimi Khalvati

Mimi Khalvati reads and explores the writing of her poem 'Ghazal'.

Mimi Khalvati, filmed in a park and cafe setting, talks about her poem 'Ghazal'. She explores how the poem reflects her interest in poetry from her cultural background and her approach to writing poetry. She reads extracts from the poem.

Teaching English Literature?

This film can be used to explore the powerful use of metaphors in the poem. Students could identify and annotate all the different metaphors in the poem and then discuss how effective their repeated use is. Can students translate some of the metaphors into literal language? What is lost in this process? Why are metaphors so common in love poetry? Can students rate the metaphors used by Khalvati, choosing the one which they feel is most effective? Students could compare this to the use of metaphor in other love poetry. Can they crown a King or Queen of love poetry metaphors and can they have a go at writing their own?

This film will be relevant for teaching English Literature at KS3, KS4 and GCSE in England and Wales. This topic appears in OCR, Edexcel, AQA, WJEC.

Release date:

Duration:

5 minutes

This clip is from