An acclaimed Marsia (Elegy) writer in Urdu. Writing of marsias - elegiac poem commemorating the martyrdom and valour of Hazrat Imam Hussain and his comrades at the Battle of Karbala - catapulted Mir Babar Ali Anis Lucknawi's reputation. A master of simple, natural utterances and command of the Urdu language Anis' genre include the customary lamentation and mourning. He depicts realistic scenes of the battlefield, graphic delineations of the hero's face and figure, lively portrayals of the emotional states of the combatants, accurate descriptions of the landscape, and occasional interludes of moral edification. Marsia (Marsiya-khwani or Soazkhwani: in Persian مرثیہ) is an elegiac poem written to commemorate the martyrdom and valour of Hazrat Imam Hussain and his comrades at the Battle of Karbala. In its form the marsia generally consists of six-line units, with a rhyming quatrain, and a couplet on a different rhyme. The sub-parts of marsia are called noha and soz, which means lamentation and burning (of heart) respectively. Besides being a master of the marsia, Anis was also a specialist of the rubai - the shortest complete poem in Urdu, containing only four lines. Major part of Mir Babar Ali Anis' life was spent in Lucknow though he was born in Faizabad, (UP) India. He was the grandson of Mir Hasan and son of Mir Khaliq both renowned poets and litterateurs. The urge for learning and literature made Meer Babar Ali 'Anees' proficient in Arabic, Persian and Islamic scriptures. Poetry came to him as ancestral heritage.