Lighting a lamp on someone's tomb is an act of piety and remembrance. It's an oil lamp, so it has a 'tongue' of flame. Or at least, it would if it were lit; but in this verse the speaker is a burnt-out or extinguished, literally 'dead', lamp. Here are some of the points of comparison; as various ones are emphasized, the nuances of interpretation change, in a process I call 'stress-shifting': =A lamp has a 'tongue', but the speaker's longings are all 'in silence', like those of a poor man or a stranger. =A lamp has a tongue of flame, but the speaker's longings are all 'hidden' in the dark, like the grave of a poor man or a stranger. =A lighted lamp has a steady flow of liquid oil that emerges into fire, but the speaker's longings have all turned (or returned) into a mere pool of blood in his heart that is going nowhere, like the longings of a poor man or a stranger. =A lighted lamp is in some sense alive, but the speaker is a 'dead' or burnt-out or extinguished lamp-- just the kind that would be on the grave of a poor man or a stranger. It's a verse of mood . The verse is also full of sonorous long vowels, making for fine sound effects and great flowingness . It's the kind of verse that a traditional audience could enjoy immediately; if Ghalib had written nothing but verses like this, he would never have become the controversial figure he did become. Compare Mir 's shorter and simpler verse M 12,2 . graphics/burntoutlamps.jpg