He's the Sultan of Shayari - Ghalib

My father used to often quote this to me, the second line -

Ghalib is a philosopher, poet, our Leonardo Da Vinci. The great poet, Mirzā Asadullāh Ḳhān (1797-1869), who used the pen name “Ġhālib” (Victorious), is now universally recognized as either the first or second greatest classical ghazal poet of Urdu; his reputation is rivaled only by that of Mīr Taqī “Mīr” (c. 1722-1810), says Pritchett in her book.

This one inspired me to work three hours on writing a ghazal -

The beauty of a ghazal is in the Urdu language. The quality of ravānī, “flowingness,” delights the ear. It is a kind of euphonious, harmonious sound that makes people want to recite the verse aloud and savor it. The smooth, sensuous effect of ravānī is traditionally described as “pearls sliding on a sheet of silk.”

Ghazals are very in now. Everyone's writing one.

This site has some great resources on Ghalib.

Here's a gem from a student of a poet -

The bitterness of separation was so extreme that he couldn’t possibly eat them

The beloved’s dog merely gnawed a bit on my bones, then left them.

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