This book is a selection of the poems of Altaf Husayn Hali, who under the aegis of the British Education Department effected a transition of Urdu poetry from Persian oriented to English oriented norms. Hali even intellectually, was the most important transitory poet. Earlier in life he was a pupil of Ghalib the first Urdu poet to have philosophical themes. In this he wrote traditional poetry which had individual traits. As a socio-political reformer he influenced Iqbal, the first poet to have a philosophical system. Even the dialectic poems of Hali proved to be extremely popular and even now they are recited in assemblies. This selection has been judiciously done.