Parveen Shakir was an Urdu poet, teacher and a civil servant of the Government of Pakistan.
Parveen started writing at an early age and published her first volume of poetry, Khushbu [Fragrance], in 1976 to great acclaim. She subsequently published other volumes of poetry; all well-received.
Shakir employed mainly two forms of poetry in her work, one being the prevalent Ghazal, and the other being free verse. The most prominent themes in Shakir's poetry are love, feminism, and social stigmas, though she occasionally wrote on other topics as well. Her work was often based on romanticism, exploring the concepts of love, beauty and their contradictions, and heavily integrated the use of metaphors, similes and personifications.
Arguably, Shakir can be termed the first female poet to use the word larki (girl) in her works. The male-dominated Urdu poetry scene seldom employs that word, and uses masculine syntax when talking about the 'lover'. Similarly, she often made use of the Urdu first-person, feminine pronoun in her verses which, though extremely common in prose, was rarely used in poetry, even by female poets, before her.
On 26 December 1994, Shakir's car collided with a bus while she was on her way to work in Islamabad. The accident resulted in her death, a great loss to the Urdu poetry world. The road on which the accident took place is named after her.
A good book to read fot starting a year. Parveen Shakir is one of famous and favorite poet of young people. I'm stunned, amused, amazed and with lots of other feelings realized that she is remarkable lady and poet of Pakistan's young Generation or fresh blood . I like her poems nd ghazals in this book but I'm in love with " نئے سال کی دعا" نئے سال کی دُعا
خدا کرے کہ نیا سال تیرے دامن میں وہ سارے پھول کھلا دے کہ جن کی خوشبو نے ترے خیال میں شمعیں جلائی رکھی تھیں!
پروین شاکر I was continually sharing it on my fb from last 3 years at the time of reading this book i got it in it. Wonderful, easy and less time taking book. Go for it :)
After my first contact with Parveen Shakir through her random piece of poetry I decided to read her other poems and gazals. I was stunned, amused, amazed and with lots of other feelings realized that she was remarkable. I read many of her poems several times even added in my Journal to make me remind of her unique writing and empathy. In her memory sharing her valuable piece. جشن سا آٹھ پہر دل میں ہے۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ کتنی یادوں کا شہر دل میں ہے۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ تجھ سے ملنے کی سرخوشی کے ساتھ۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ ایک اداسی کی لہر دل میں ہے۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ ہے ازل سے رخ فلک نیلا۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ کس قیامت کا زہر دل میں ہے۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ دھوپ نکلی ہوی ہے برف کے بعد۔۔۔۔۔۔ کون یہ صبح چہر دل میں ہے۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ خشک ہوتی نہیں کسی موسم۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ غم کی اک ایسی نہر دل میں ہے۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ حیف ہے ایسی میزبانی پر۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ حسرت سیر دہر دل میں یے۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔ پروین شاکر۔۔۔