Mir Taqi Mir was born at Agra in 1723. He spent his early childhood under the care and companionship of his father, whose constant emphasis on the importance of love and the value of continence and compassion in life went a long way in moulding his personality as a poet. This became the chief thematic strand of his poetry. Acknowledged as one of the leaders of Urdu shayari by names like Ghalib, Mir Taqi Mir's poetry carried a sense of pathos for which he often met with criticism.

He lived at a time when Urdu poetry was yet at a formative stage - with its linguistic content being reformed and purged of native crudities, and its texture being enriched with borrowings from Persian imagery and idiom. Aided by his aesthetic instincts, Mir struck a fine balance between the old and the new, indigenous and imported elements. Knowing that Urdu is essentially an Indian language, he retained the best in native Hindi speech and leavened it with a sprinkling of Persian diction and phraseology, so as to create a poetic language at once simple, natural and elegant, acceptable alike to the elite and the common folk. Consequently he developed a style, which has been the envy of all succeeding poets...

Click here for a superb and enchanting selection of poetry from this great poet.