Repetition is an important aspect of Ghalib’s poems, working to create a rhythm and drawing attention to areas of importance. In “It was essential,” for example, the phrase “for a few more days” is repeated at the end of each couplet or stanza, serving as the refrain. The repeated phrase shows a juxtaposition of Ghalib’s grief, pining for the past, and his fear of suicide. It emphasizes Ghalib’s feelings of regret and unsatisfactory; furthermore showing the degree of desperation for his son back. Having been left alone in the world, he can only ask to preserve the conditions that existed prior to his son’s death for just a little while longer – for a few more days. He does not ask for forever, grateful for even the thinnest slice of eternity. Ghalib is not yet willing to move on from the past. When he speaks of his son’s death, he says, “You arrived yesterday –/and, now, today you say,/“I’m leaving.” (Ghalib 597 Lines 13-15). He is literally living in the past at this point, describing his son’s death as if it were happening in the present.

Ghalib’s obsession with the past pairs with his fear of the future. From the first stanza, he resolves to join his son, telling him to “now wait alone/ for a few more days” (Ghalib 597 Lines 5-6). This intention is mentioned again as he declares that “my head will soon be dust,” (Ghalib 597 Line 9), referencing the decomposition process that occurs after death. Finally at the end, Ghalib deems it his “destiny/to continue to wish for death/for a few more days” (Ghalib 598 Line 58-60). Ghalib is constantly putting death off, both for his son and himself. Although he is lonely, he can’t get himself to end his life. Instead he runs around in circles — reflecting on the past and son’s death with remorse but never moving forward. A parallel can be drawn to his cyclic repetition of “for a few more days.” He also calls his son “the full moon of my home –” (Ghalib 598 Line 33), making reference to the lunar calendar, which is also forever repeating its waxing waning cycle.

In the first stanza, he hints that his son was supposed to wait for him, but instead left the world alone. This likely has to do with a parent’s expectation to die prior to their children. Here the word “alone” is repeated twice to highlight Ghalib’s current state and feelings of being abandoned. Although the word is directly used to describe the son — having died and existing in the next realm alone — it also indirectly describes Ghalib himself. Since his son left, separating the two of them, Ghalib too is alone, but left in this world.