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آزاد

Azad Nazm

One rukn, variable lines

The 20th-century modernist form pioneered by Tasadduq Hussain Khalid and N.M. Rashid. Often confused with English free verse — but Azad Nazm is still in meter. Here is the rule, the taxonomy, and a worked example.

The misconception

Most introductions to Azad Nazmrender it into English as “free verse,” which suggests a poem free of meter — like Whitman, like Eliot. That is wrong. Azad Nazm is not free of meter; it is free of fixed line length. The meter is still strict; only the rule that every line have the same number of feet is relaxed.

What Western “free verse” actually maps to in Urdu is Nasri Nazm (نثری نظم, prose poem) — the only Urdu form that genuinely has no meter. Azad Nazm sits between the two extremes.

The four kinds of nazm

Urdu prosody recognises four distinct forms of nazm. The Applied Arooz textbook (Dr. Azam) lays them out cleanly:

FormMeterLine lengthQafia / Radif
Paband NazmFixed bahrFixedRequired
Nazm-e-MuarraFixed bahrFixedNone
Azad NazmOne ruknVariableNone
Nasri NazmNoneFreeNone

Azad Nazm is the third row — fixed rukn, variable line length, no qafia or radif required.

The rule

A poet writing Azad Nazm picks one rukn (one of the eight canonical feet — mafāʿīlun, fāʿilātun, mustafʿilun, faʿūlun, fāʿilun, etc.). Every line of the poem is then an integer multiple of that one rukn:

  • Some lines = 1 rukn (a single foot)
  • Some lines = 2 rukns
  • Some lines = 3 rukns, and so on

All lines share the same rukn, so the rhythm stays consistent. The number of feet per line is the poet's choice. No qafia, no radif required — though either may appear if the poet wants.

A worked example

Nida Fazli's celebrated poem Walid Ki Wafat Par (“On My Father's Death”) is in mafāʿīlun (1222). Each opening line is a different integer multiple of that one rukn:

Rukn: مفاعیلن(1222)
تمہاری قبر پر
میں فاتحہ پڑھنے نہیں آیا
مجھے معلوم تھا
تم مر نہیں سکتے
Tumhaari qabr par
MaiN faatiha paRhne nahin aaya
Mujhe maaloom tha
Tum mar nahin sakte
— Nida Fazli, Walid Ki Wafat Par (opening). Every line is an integer multiple of mafāʿīlun; the multiples vary, which is why the lines have visibly different lengths.

Read aloud, the poem is unmistakably in meter — every syllable lands on the mafāʿīlun rhythm. But the lines breathe at different lengths, like prose, like speech.

Where it came from

Azad Nazm emerged in Urdu in the 1930s–40s, influenced by French Symbolism (Baudelaire, Mallarmé) and English Modernism (Eliot, Pound). The form's pioneers in Urdu:

  • Tasadduq Hussain Khalid(1901–1971) — usually credited as the form's primary theorist and the first systematic practitioner.
  • N.M. Rashid (Noon Meem Rashid) — his collection Mavra (1942) is the landmark; the most influential practitioner of Azad Nazm.
  • Miraji — heavily experimental; shaped the form for the generation that followed.
  • Faiz Ahmed Faiz — used the form occasionally alongside his ghazals and pabands.

By the mid-20th century, Azad Nazm was the dominant vehicle for Urdu modernist poetry — and it remains so today.

Try it

Open the scanner, select Azad Nazm as the poetry type, pick a rukn, and paste any candidate poem. The scanner will verify each line independently against integer multiples of your chosen rukn.

Open the scanner →