  The study presented here provides numerical insight into ghazal -- the most
appreciated genre in Urdu poetry. Using 48,761 poetic works from 4,754 poets
produced over a period of 800 years, this study explores the main features of
Urdu ghazal that make it popular and admired more than other forms. A detailed
explanation is provided as to the types of words used for expressing love,
nature, birds, and flowers etc. Also considered is the way in which the poets
addressed their loved ones in their poetry. The style of poetry is numerically
analyzed using Multi Dimensional Scaling to reveal the lexical diversity and
similarities/differences between the different poetic works that have drawn the
attention of critics, such as Iqbal and Ghalib, Mir Taqi Mir and Mir Dard. The
analysis produced here is particularly helpful for research in computational
stylistics, neurocognitive poetics, and sentiment analysis.
