Intikhab-e-Kalam: Noon Meem Rashid

This is a selection of poems by Noon Meem Rashid (1910-1975), one of the pioneers of blank verse and free verse in Urdu. It was he who had to bear the onslaught of tradition bound criticism. This criticism now appears ludicrous, Noon Meem Rashid prevailed. Noon Meem Rashid’s poems had vigour, and the compactness, which had eluded Urdu poetry till then. From first collection Ma’wara, 1941, Rashid comes through as a sceptic with deep metaphysical insight. Noon Meem Rashid’s blank verses were full abstract illuminations and formations, projecting the enigmatic, bizarre, and weird aspects of life, absorbing into poetry themes that had hitherto been the presence of prose.