A ghazal is a series of couplets. Each couplet is an independent poem, although a thematic continuity may develop. According to Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr. , what in English is a couplet is, in Persian, one long line with a strong caesura. Traditional themes that focus on romantic love and mysticism. All the couplets are in the same meter.
Poems published in English as ghazals usually have only the first feature.
Agha Shahid Ali insists that a poem cannot be a ghazal without inclusion of all the features. Avachat says that sometimes the radif is omitted. John Drury 's description of the form, like others I've seen, is not clear on these specifics, but does encourage experimentation. It is clear that, in Persian, Urdu, Hindi, etc., the ghazal is a specific and demanding form. While I sympathize with Ali's impatience with American poets using the term for poems that don't fit the traditional definition, I have some questions and comments about the adaptation of the ghazal to English.