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GCSE English Literature · key term
A poetic form originating in Arabic poetry, traditionally using rhyming couplets and a repeated ending, often exploring love and separation.
Used by Edexcel and OCR
Paper 2
Revise: Jamaican BritishThis pattern adapts the ghazal, a form originating in Arabic poetry and traditionally associated with love and separation. A traditional ghazal uses a recurring ending called a radif, alongside a rhyme pattern. Antrobus’s repeated “Jamaican British” recalls that convention, but the endings change: at points only “Jamaican” or “British” remains, and some lines end differently.
Paper 1
A form of lyric poetry often performed as a song, associated with themes such as love and longing.
Describe the poem as adapting the ghazal tradition: its repeated endings vary rather than following an unchanging traditional refrain.
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Papa’s mournful ghazals reconnect the adults with people and places they miss. Music also gives Meena access to feelings and memories beyond her familiar village. In Chapter 4, she recalls that the elders seemed “far, far away”.
