His real name was Mohammad Taqi. He was born in 1723 in Agra. His grandfather was in the army and  his father Mohammad Ali was a very religious man. Mohammad Ali was a sufi and had many sufi friends. When Meer was a little child, his father looking at his face used to say which  is this fire burning within your heart that is reflecting on your face. Sufis are lovers of God and so he thought that it was the fire of love for Allah. Living in a atmosphere of sufism at a very young age had profound effect on Meer. He did not had much desires for the worldly things.

 When Taqi was about eleven years old, his father died. Those people who were supposed to care for him left him helpless. In his autobiography, he wrote

apna hi hath sar peH raha ap-nay yaN sada
mushfaq koi nahi hai koi meharbaN nahiN

In another sher, he wrote

ab jahaN aaftab main hum haiN.
yaN kabhu sar-o-gul kay saye th-ay

His elder step- brother also treated him  badly. Meer left Agra for Delhi in search of livelihood . Samsamudaula gave him a scholarship of one rupee per day, but this did not continued for long.  In 1739, Nadir shah attacked Delhi in which Samsamudaula was killed; therefore the  scholarship stopped.  At that time Meer was in Agra.

 love...
After staying in Agra for few days, Meer again went to Delhi. 

chala akbarabaad say jis ghaRhi
dar-o-baam par chashm-e-hasrat paRhi

Akbarabad is the old name of Agra. Most probably this time he was in love with someone and therefore was not very enthusiastic about leaving Agra. 

In Delhi, he stayed in the home of Khan Arzoo, who was a renowned aalim and the maternal uncle of Meer's step-brother Hafiz Muhammad Hasan. Muhammad Hassan wrote a letter to his uncle criticizing Meer. Soon Meer was homeless and  jobless. And roaming in the streets aimlessly made him junooni. 

In one masnawi Meer has described about his junoon. He says, he used to see a beautiful girl's face in moon, who used to come down from the sky and talked to him till the day-break. Which strongly suggests that he did really fell in love in Agra. 

 in Lucknow...

kya bood-o-baash puchho ho purab kay sakinoN
humko gHarib jaan kay haNs haNs pukar kay
dilli jo aik shahar tha aalam-e-intekHaab meiN
rah-tay thay mutakHib hi jahaaN rozgaar kay
usko falak nay looT kay bar-baar kar diya
hum rah-nay waa-lay haiN usi uj-Rhay dayaar kay

After Nadir Shah's carnage there was no charm left in Delhi for the poets, many of them  moved to Lucknow. Meer came to Lucknow in 1783; Nawab Asafaddaula fixed him Rs. 200 a month stipend. 
His early experiences in life and shortness of money made a permanent change in his nature and even in the peaceful atmosphere of Lucknow he lived a terrible life. Simple things used to make him upset, many times he walked out of the Nawab's darbar. In 1810 he died in Lucknow. He is buried near the City Railway Station in Lucknow. 

poetry...

Meer is the biggest name in Urdu poetry, every poet including Ghalib has acknowledged Meer's greatness.

rekH-tay kay tum hi ustad nahiN ho gHaalib
kah-tay haiN ag-lay zama-nay meiN koi meer bhi tha

Most of Meer's poetry is about heart and love, in his own words he "recited the mariyas of heart"
marsiye uss nay kai kah kay diye logoN ko
shahar dehli meiN hai sab paas nishaani uss ki

From his time to still at this age Meer's ashar has the same effect on the readers/listener's heart because Meer has collected all the emotions that a human heart experiences in a life time. Many of his sher has become part of our language that we use everyday and  some of them have become idioms. some examples are...
jaan hai to jahaan hai pyare

shikwa-e-aabla abhi say meer?

kya diwa-nay nay maut payi hai

paNkhuRhi ik gulaab ki si hai

umr bhar hum rahe sharaabi say
 

The most important aspect of Meer's poetry is that unlike other poets ( including poets of other languages) all of his poetry is nothing less than masterrpiece. He has said himself...

sahal hai meer ka samajhna kya
har sukHan uska aik muqaam say hai

some of his ashaars are ...

hama-ray aa-gay tera jab kasoo nay naam liya
dil sitam zadah to hum nay tham thaam liya

meer unn neem baaz aaNkho meiN
saari masti sharaab ki si hai

nazuki uss kay lab ki kya kahiye
paNkhuRhi ik gulaab ki si hai

shaam hi say bujha sa rahta hai
dil hua hai chiragH muflis ka

ibtida-e-ishq hai rota hai kya
aa-gay aa-gay dekhiye hota hai kya

[contributed by Saba H.]
 

Meer pages : by Shakil Langha

by Nita

by Tabassum