The poem “It was essential” describes the pain that the author Ghalib suffered from the lost of his son, Arif. Based on the second definition in the poem, it informs us that Arif died from illness. In other words, Arif’s death was unexpected and unprepared. So that, his “father” Ghalib had a hard time to accept the fact of his misplacement.

In the first stanza, the two “you” (line 2, 4) were apparently indicating the adopted son, Arif. The repetitive phrase “a few more days” (line 3, 6) shows Ghalib requested to extend the life time to be with his son. In general, depending on the age, the son should not depart from life before the father. But, in fact, Arif passed away before his father because of illnesses.

In the third stanza, Ghalib expressed his unwillingness of Arif’s death. He described Arif’s arrival was “yesterday” (line 13), but his departure was “today” (line 14). These descriptions show the period of time that had been together was short. Even though Ghalib admitted that staying together is not good, he still wants his son Arif to return to him. When Ghalib was writing this stanza, I can imagine Ghalib was missing his son a lot because he complained the time was passing by very fast.

In the fourth stanza, it implies the relationship between Ghalib and Arif did not end by the separation of death. They had a promise that they will meet each other when the day of Allah call the living and the dead to judgement comes. And they both awaiting for that day to come. This shows us that their relationship was close and they cherished to have each other in life.

In the sixth stanza, Ghalib symbolized Arif as a “full moon” (line 33). Based on the fourth definition, the “full moon” is an image of beauty, happiness, and blessedness. So that, from my understanding, Arif brighten up Ghalib’s family’s life. Arif was the source of joys and happiness in the family. Therefore, Ghalib wanted to have Arif in the family like the full moon in the picture.

In the seventh and eighth stanza, Ghalib criticized the powerful God for taking Arif’s life away in an early time. He questioned the powerful God why couldn’t forgive His Death (Arif’s death) and let him (Arif) on earth. Because of Arif’s life was taken away, Ghalib thought the powerful God was not in his favor. Therefore, Ghalib experienced helpless in his life.

In the last stanza, Ghalib ironically indicated people who asked the reason of Ghalib’s living as fools. In other words, there were people expected him to be out of living. However, he commented his destiny was to wish for death because of losing all his love ones, he cannot bear the pain any longer.