Preview

Social Concerns in Kamala Das's Poetry

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1368 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Social Concerns in Kamala Das's Poetry
‘Afterwards' and After: Social Concerns in the poems of Kamala Das

" He ( the poet) is responsible for humanity, even for the animals, he must see to it that his invention can be smelt, felt, heard." ( Arthur Rimbaud)

From the queen of erotica to a poetic pilgrim, the critical nexus on Kamala Das's poetry has oscillated between opposite poles. These varied critical stances reflect that the genius of the poet refuses to be strait-jacketed into a uniform notion. In this paper, I will attempt to reveal the social issues that imbue the oeuvre of her poetry.

Kamala Das in her much discussed autobiography, My Story , pointed out: " A poet's raw material is not stone or clay; it is her personality."1 In direct contradiction to Eliot's theory of poetic creation, Mrs. Das asserts that her poetry is subjective and through it she voices forth her strains and stresses. This, however, does not imply a selfish preoccupation with the self but a melioristic vision that is shocked and disgusted at the plight of fellow mortals. Her sensitive soul is deeply affected by the maladies that lie deeply ingrained in the social matrix.

In the poem Afterwards -- no intertextuality with Hardy's poem -- written when the poet was in her teens, she questions the notions of scientific progress that has ushered the nuclear holocaust:

" Son of my womb, Ugly in loneliness, You walk the world's bleary eye Like a mote. Your cleverness Shall not be your

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Without an understanding of the time period when a poem is developed, we fail to fully appreciate and understand the purpose and messages within such compositions. While the contextual detail of some poems may be fairly simple, the way poets put words together often makes these themes, messages and forms abstract and confusing. A reader must attempt to delve deeper and study the context of society, culture, and that of the writer at the time of composition, or they will interpret and push away composed material as meaningless ‘mumbo-jumbo’ – which is what works by poets like T.S. Eliot strived to avoid.…

    • 1386 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    As a prosperous, admired poet, Sylvia Plath considered her obsession with death and her failure of self-repair as an art form that she expressed through poetry. Due to the continuous disloyalty resulting in betrayal that Plath received throughout her life she repeatedly designated herself the role as a victim in a majority of her poems. This gives evidence in saying that Sylvia Plath was a troubled woman trying to deal with her dark nature that is shown in several poems that she wrote, specifically the months leading to her death. This essay will discuss the increasing frailty up to the time of her death and how she became to accept her dark nature and use it to her advantage. Analysing three of Plath’s most heart wrenching poems that best…

    • 818 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sylvia Plath’s poem, ‘Whiteness I Remember’, and Ted Hughes’s poem, ‘Sam’, are two poems which describe an experience of Plath’s when she was a student at Cambridge. She was out on her first ride when the horse she had hired the normally-placid Sam, bolted. Although Ted Hughes’s is describing the experience he uses insinuations throughout the poem to let out his perception of his marriage with Sylvia Plath, hence infuriating, the conflict in perspective between the two poems. The ideas of ‘conflicting perspective’ suggest that the composers of the texts present an even-handed, unbiased attitude to the events, personalities or situations represented. Conflicting perspectives explore the subjective truth of the individual, which are shaped by the construction of a text by a biased composer. Each person’s version of the truth in events, personalities and situations differs, by viewing separate perspectives an understanding of the motives and purpose of the composer is formed.…

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Q – ‘Poetic power, dramatic presentation and compelling psychological insights provide the richness of her poetry. A pervading pessimism clouds her achievement.’…

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Saying Sylvia Plath was a troubled woman would be an understatement. She was a dark poet, who attempted suicide many times, was hospitalized in a mental institution, was divorced with two children, and wrote confessional poems about fetuses, reflection, duality, and a female perspective on life. Putting her head in an oven and suffocating was probably the happiest moment in her life, considering she had wanted to die since her early twenties. However, one thing that was somewhat consistent throughout her depressing poetry would be the theme of the female perspective. The poems selected for analysis and comparison are, ”A Life”(1960),”You’re”(1960), “Mirror” (1961), “The Courage of Shutting-Up” (1962) and finally, “Kindness” (1963). All five of these previously discussed poems have some sort of female perspective associated with them, and that commonality is the focus point of this essay.…

    • 1835 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Last Night vs the Embrace

    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Doty, Mark. "Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More." Poets.org. Harper Collins, 1988. Web. 08 June 2012.…

    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    James Dickey once said that, “A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning” (“James Dickey,” 2015). Thus, one would be lead to believe that James Dickey must not like poets or poetry. Contrary to this belief, James Dickey is a renowned American poet himself and is praised for his works in poetry. Throughout his poems, Dickey writes about the concerns for humans’ and animals’ instincts. These concerns are portrayed in the themes of his poems and is the basis for much of his poetry.…

    • 949 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Highwayman

    • 1342 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Briefly explain what the content of the poem is about and how it develops a particular perspective on life and life experience which readers can learn from. Draw on examples from the poem to support your interpretation of its content and the perspective on life and life experience it develops. Remember to provide specific evidence from the poem to justify your ideas.PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE: a. Topic Sentence (main point of the paragraph). This sentence outlines your central point of the paragraph. b. Supporting sentences (facts, evidence, reasoning, appeals to readers’ emotions, appeals to readers’ sense of logic by drawing on key examples from the poem). Direct quotes must be accurately referenced to and drawn on in outlining your point. c. Extended reasoning…

    • 1342 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This paper is comparing and contrasting two poets, a Traditional Poet vs. Free Verse poet, Emily Dickinson vs. Langston Hughes. Research includes samples from their poems, “Hope is the Thing with Feathers” and “Dreams”. Comparing and contrasting the poets to show how different they are in their poetry.…

    • 291 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    One of the many misunderstood forms of literature would have to be poetry. Some people, including modern youth, do not get how it works, sometimes with broken, gibberish sounding sentences, and often with large loads of symbolism. But, when it is put into a book about modern issues, like sexual abuse, mental health, and feminism, it can be powerful to young and old minds alike. In Rupi Kaur’s first poetry book, Milk and Honey, with everything she covers, it can at times be difficult to figure out what type of conflict Kaur is dealing with. Though, with careful consideration, one is able to figure out that though there are multiple conflicts throughout the book, the ongoing conflict is person versus self.…

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    The novel Siddhartha written by Hermann Hesse is a philosophical novel that explores the journey of life and to enlightenment. This is done through the narration of the life of a young boy – the eponymous Siddhartha by a third-person omniscient narrator. My goal in this essay is to explore the role of the most important female character in Siddhartha, Kamala.…

    • 1300 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Throughout the history, humans have seen themselves as the dominators of the animals. People domesticate and do unethical experiment on animals. However, in recent years, as the morality and ethics become more comprehensive, humans begin to reconsider their relationship with animals. In both “Traveling through the Dark,” written by William Stafford, and “Woodchucks”, written by Maxin Kumin, the authors discuss about interventions of human beings to animals. Even though the two poems are different in the use of irony, the tone and the sentence structure, they illustrate similar relationships between humans and animals that humans are superior to animals.…

    • 1246 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Neruda Poetry Analysis

    • 1476 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Neruda as a political activist was determined to channel his passions for social justice into his poetic collections. In his early years Neruda was influenced heavily by the socio-political context of Chile and more broadly, the situation in Latin America. The 1920s was a period defined by political upheaval and social reforms. Divisions between social classes, regionalism, the role of the Catholicism and the pertaining Spanish and British colonial influence all were significant issues that caused conflict and unrest. It was a time when political activism and ideology was strong; Neruda was one such political activist. As result of this era, his poetry incorporates many lyrical, personal and political dimensions. He understood the necessity of writing poetry to be accessible, particularly to the lower class, and it is for this reason he wrote in the language of everyday life. Neruda’s voice is the voice of the working class, the voice of peasants and factory workers, of ordinary people whose perspectives were often ignored. This expression and use of language was highly influential in spreading his views on social justice and equality. It is even evident that elements of Neruda’s socialistic ideologies have permeated into today’s collective consciousness. However, he was also aware of the need to break past linguistic habits. Neruda argued that that it was traditional conventions in writing that could be used to incite domination by external powers, as…

    • 1476 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Marianne Moore’s poem, “Poetry”, the author tells the events of developing and learning that poetry is truly something very special. This is evident from the selection of words in this piece of writing, which include contempt, discovers, and genuine. They occur in the poem in this order, which the author does for a reason. The author does this to show that through the duration of the story, the author changes and grows to see the greatness in poetry. At the beginning, the author does not like poetry, having contempt for such work, but as time goes on she discovers there is more to poetry than she once believed, and then she finally grasps the genuine nature of poetry, thus accepting its greatness.…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The above statement that "poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world" has been taken from his essay 'A Defence of Poetry' in which he discusses the role of the poet in society and asserts that he is the moderator of the society. In the essay he mentions that the ancient poets were "magi" or wise men whose poetry was magical. According to him poets are "the instituitions of laws, and the founders of civil society, and the inventors of the arts of life."…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics