Firaq Saheb ( the great Urdu poet Firaq Gorakhpuri ) used to often point out some defects in Urdu poetry. For instance, it has very little nature poetry, e.g. the nature poetry of the English poet Wordsworth ( see 'The Daffodils', 'Solitary Reaper', 'Tintern Abbey', 'The Prelude', etc ) and ' Meghadut ' of Kalidas. It also lacks the maternal love poetry e.g. the maternal love of Yashoda for the child Krishna in Surdas and Raskhan, and in the Tamil poem 'Tiruppavai' by Andal.
However, there is one aspect from which perspective Urdu poetry is the greatest in the world.
I have read the poetry of several countries--England, America, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, the Latin American countries, Persia, etc and also the poetry of India e.g. Hindi, Sanskrit, Bengali, Tamil, etc.
In no language does the voice of the human heart come out with such power and with such elegance ( andaz-e-bayan ) as in Urdu. In that respect Urdu poetry is the greatest in the world ( see my article ' What is Urdu ' on my blog justicekatju.blogspot.in and on the website kgfindia.com )
What a tragedy that this great language was sought to be suppressed by some bigoted idiots in the land of its own birth !
