Unit 1: Poetry

Rabindranath Tagore : Heaven Of Freedom

“Heaven of Freedom ”
Rabindranath Tagore was born in Bengal in 1861. He wrote poems in
Bangla and in English. In 1913, he received the Nobel Prize for
Literature. He produced some sixty collections of verse, nearly a hundred
short stories, several novels, plays, dance dramas, essays on religious,
social and literary topics, and over 2500 songs, including the national
anthems of India and Bangladesh. Gitanjali a collection of poems by
Rabindranath Tagore known for their unmatched style of presentation,
fresh poetic structure and spiritual musings which was later translated
into English by William Radice.Tagore also has the honour of being the
composer of the Indian National Anthem, Jana Gana Mana.
The poem Heaven of Freedom is an extract taken from Tagore’s famous
book Gitanjali for which he won the Nobel Prize. In the poem, the poet
expresses his vision for a utopian India. The poet wishes that he wants
his countrymen to be free of fear and hold their head high with self-
esteem and humble pride. He wishes his county to be united and free of
the narrow domestic strife, clashes; backwardness, and divisions. He
wishes his countrymen to be living their life in truth only; he wishes his
countrymen to make endless efforts for perfection in their respective
spheres. He wishes for his countrymen to live rationally without ever
getting lost in thoughtless habits. He wishes his countrymen to move
ahead always taking guidance from omniscient God, ever-expanding
until India is converted into a heaven of freedom. At the end, the poet
prays to God to make all his wishes for his country come true.
Through the poem Heaven of Freedom, Tagore deals with the real
meaning of freedom and the true values of Heaven. He talks about
heavenly freedom. Heaven is possible anywhere even also on the Earth.
Freedom of thoughts, ideas, mind, rules, and dogmas transfer earth into
heaven.  If freedom comes based on the ideology of Tagore then the earth
would transform into heaven. This heaven is compared with a Utopian
State where there is no suffering and no sin. We can create such heaven
through deeds, ambition and aspirations. The real heaven is nothing but
created by men.
Tagore talks on the importance of a fearless mind, self-confidence and
free knowledge.  The mind of men should not have any fear but brave
and courageous to sustain and maintain the truth. The high goal is
equally important in life to achieve the freedom. Being a pioneer of
Education in India, Tagore believes in the Education which must be free
and not bound in any narrow bookish system of examination only.
Further, Tagore talks about the unity of the nation he rejects the system
of narrow domestic walls that separate men from men. Free and frank
communication with every people is very necessary to break the walls of
separation. Tagore talks about freedom but freedom should be based on
truth. He says about the truth in the following manner. 
Tagore was very much influenced by Gandhi Ji. Tagore includes
Gandhian philosophy of truth in his poetry. Gandhiji has fully accepted
the value of truth in My Experiment of with Truth. For Gandhiji,
Realization of the Truth is the purpose of human life. The poet was very
influenced and impressed by Gandhi and presents the value of truth. To
get the freedom, the poet believes in perfection. It comes after hard and
continuous efforts. Freedom of Heaven is a very thoughtful poem which
presents the idea that the heaven is nowhere; heaven is itself on earth.
Tagore stresses on fearlessness, free knowledge, no domestic struggle,
truth, perfection. The poem may remind the Gandhian philosophy of
Truth and the philosophy of thoughts and action of Jawaharlal Nehru.
Tagore’s views can be compared with the slogan of French revolution
Equality, liberty and Brotherhood. Tagore was a great nationalist and
mighty internationalist. His poetry is born out of an amalgam of the rich
classical heritage of ancient India.
Q. ‘‘Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country
awake’’– What is meant by ‘heaven of freedom’? State briefly
what kind of freedom that Rabindranath prays for his
countrymen to achieve?
Ans.: The great poet Rabindranath Tagore finds his country India in a
state of ignorance, laziness, irrationality and narrow-mindedness. The
heaven of freedom mentioned here suggests the fearlessness of the
Indians from irrational customs, traditions, blind faith and dead habits.
The falsehood, prejudice, belief in superstition, division of mankind in
castes and creed have led Indians into a state of deep sleep. In sleep, one
is not aware of the real world. Consequently, he does not act or conduct
himself to improve. The condition in India stands in this sorrowful state.
So the poet prays to God to break this slumber of his countrymen and
awaken them to the realization of true freedom which will lead them to
progress and prosperity.
Summary
‘The Tiger and The Deer’ is a beautiful poem by Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, a
versatile genius and an intellectual giant. It is one of the early lyrical
poems composed by Sri Aurobindo in free quantitative verse. Through
powerful language and imagery, the poet conjures up in our vision the
cruel, sinister grandeur of the forest crouching, slouching, pouncing and
slaying the delicate beauty of the woods. The glinting eyes, the powerful
chest and the soft soundless paws of the tiger together convey an
awesome aspect. Even the wind which is naturally powerful and free is
frightened of the tiger who is the picture of brilliance splendour,
sublimity yet murder and of making the leaves rustle, it sneaks through
them fearing that its voice and footsteps may disturb the pitiless
splendour it hardly dared to breathe, says the poet.
But thoroughly unmindful of anyone or anything, the tiger
keeps crouching and creeping preparing for a final fatal pounce upon the
unsuspecting, innocent deer which is drinking water from a pool in the
cool, comforting shades of the forest. As the gentle creature falls and
breathes his last, he remembers his mate left alone, defenceless in the
dense forest. Such tender feelings are beyond the Pale of the ferocious
tiger. This mild harmless beauty is destroyed by the strong crude beauty
in Nature.
But the poet does not despair at the sight of such ferocity and cruelty.
The last part of the poem ends on a note of optimism and prophecy. Sri
Aurobindo that a day may yet come when the tiger will no more crouch
and creep in the dangerous heart of the forest, just like
the mammoth being extinct, no more attacks the plains of Asia. He is
clearly indicating the imperial British rule in India and other forest deer
shall drink water in the woodland pool in perfect safety and
contentment. The powerful ones will cause their own downfall; the
victims of today shall outlive their victors. These lines carry a suggestion
that terror will be replaced by beauty and death by life.
“The entire poem is a vivid painting in words of the strong tiger’s cruel
killing of soft and weak deer, the dramatic pose and posture, all
movements and even each footstep of the tiger are living to our eyes in
the rhythmic expression” ( Nirmalya Ghatak).
The two pictures of brutality and vulnerability are effectively contrasted.
The locality chosen to represent the two animals is significant: it is their
natural habitat. The movement of the ferocious bear described with the
apt words and phrases bear testimony to Sri Aurobindo’s command of
the English language as well as his keen imaginative observation of
Nature and her creatures. He has seldom drawn such a terrestrial picture
in words as in this highly realistic poem’ The poem also illustrates his
theory of quantitative verse, which is left to find out its own line by line
rhythm and unity.
The Tiger and the Deer is a metaphysical lyric of great significance and
may be classed with some of his mystical poems like “Thought and
Paraclete “. It projects the bright and burning terror of the forest, namely
the tiger which inflicts unprovoked disaster and suffering to peace and
innocence, that is the deer. The poem could be interpreted as a symbolic
expression of the modern craze for power and domination over the
underdogs and the downtrodden; of the predominance of tamasik (evil)
over satwik (good). Based on such an interpretation, the prophecy
contained in the last lines of the poem indicates the transformation of
souls leading to the divination of the entire earth.
Before becoming steeped in yoga and mysticism Sri Aurobindo had a
short spell of political activities, through which he tried to free Mother
India from the shackles of the mighty British. The given poem is a
product of such zealous political patriotic ideas and feelings. The
prophecy embodied in the last lines was only a common expression of
the hopes and aspirations of every Indian patriot.
Model Explanation
But a day may yet come when the tiger
crouches and leaps no more…
As the mammoth shakes no more the
plains of Asia
Sri Aurobindo was predominantly a mystic poet but wrote lyrics too,
particularly in the early phase of his poetic career. The Tiger and Deer is
one of the early lyrical poems composed by him in qualitative verse
through powerful language and imagery of unprovoked killing of an
innocent defenceless deer drinking water at a woodland pool by a
sinister tiger.
The given lines occur at the latter part of the poem. They bear a
prophetic note. The port prophesies that a day will certainly come when
the wicked tiger will no more crouch and creep in the dangerous heart of
the forest, just like the mammoth no more attacking the plains of Asia.
The poet is indicating the imminent end of centuries of imperial British
rule in India and other Asian countries.
The Mammoth is a huge animal, extinct now, believed to be the ancestor
of the elephant. The poem bears testimony to Sri Aurobindo’s patriotism
as well as foresight. Before becoming immersed in yoga and mysticism,
he had a brief spell of political activities when he tried to free Mother
India from the shackles of the mighty British. The given lines are an echo
of that period
Q. Write the critical appreciation of The Tiger and The Deer.
Ans.The Tiger and the Deer is a beautiful poem by Sri Aurobindo Ghosh,
a versatile genius and an intellectual giant. His outstanding
achievements in prose, poetry and drama rank him as the greatest figure
of Indo-Anglian literature. He considered himself first and foremost a
poet. Aurobindo is perhaps a greater seer than Tagore. He is very well
known for the integral philosophy which he expounded through his
writings like The Life Divine and The Human Cycle. Aurobinds’s genius
manifested itself not only in his long poems but also in his exquisite
shorter poems. In small proportions also we see just beauties and life
becomes perfect in short measures too.
The poem The Tiger and The Deer stands as an example how a small
poem can achieve epical proportion. The poem signals the poet’s
tortured sense at the misery of soul exhibiting the essential weakness
and strength with honesty – one of the qualities of great poetry.
Apparently the poem depicts the terror of a forest with the enactment of
cruelty. The tiger’s cruelty towards the deer imposes an order on the
chaotic experience which parallels the vision of Eliot’s The Waste Land.
And it is this sense of chaos which lends a sense of unpleasantness and
shapelessness. In fact, the poet’s sense of paradox in creation is very
sharp. It is this Shakespearean attitude towards life which gives a critical
and significant rhythm to the poem.
Nevertheless, the poem ends with a sense of hope that ‘the mighty perish
in their might’. In fact, it is the dramatization of destruction which ends
with the hope of re-establishment of the harmony achieving the idea of
reorganization of impulse (I. A. Richards). Moreover, the two animals –
tiger’ and deer’ not only achieve symbolic extension but also work as a
strategy to push forward the poem. Aurobindo Ghosh orchestrates his
image like Blake.
“Small–scale Reflections on a Great House”
The poem was first published in the collection The Relations. It is a long
poem with a consistent structure. The poem is divided into seven parts.
Each part consists of 13 lines which are divided into three lines in each
stanza followed by a single line. It brings forth a picture of an old Hindu
house that is occupied by several generations. Stanza after stanza the
poet presents the vivid picture of its household, the family members,
their lifestyle and numerous events that take place in that ‘great house’.
He says,
Sometimes I think that nothing
that ever comes into this house
goes out. Things that come in everyday
to lose themselves among other things
lost long ago among
other things lost long ago;

The lines reveal the recapturing of the past time into memory. The house
has been accommodating for years and ages the numerous things like
unread library books, neighbours’ dishes, servants, phonographs etc.
Like these non–living things the house also gives shelter to servants,
cows, sons-in-law, and daughters-in-law. The poet ironically comments
on the fact that if sometimes things go out, they come back to the house
once again. The letters return to the house, which are redirected for
many times to wrong addresses; cotton bales return processed and often
with ‘long bills attached’. Even the ideas like rumours come back and
stay in the house like prodigies. Daughters who are married to short-
lived idiots return, and sons, who had run away, also come back. In this
way, nothing that goes out of this great house stays out. The image that
the house is sustaining and preserving all things forever becomes darker
at the end where the poet mentions:
And though many times from everywhere,
recently only twice:
once in nineteen-forty-three
from as far as the Sahara,
half -gnawed by desert foxes,
and lately from somewhere
in the north, a nephew with stripes
on his shoulder was called
an incident on the border
and was brought back in plane
and train and military truck
even before the telegrams reached,
on a perfectly good

It refers to the death of a person who had gone at war frontier. The
household witness the moments of happiness and sorrow and keep
preserving its traditional and age-long identity of a great ancient house.
After reading the poem along with its subtle irony and witty expressions,
we realize that the poem is not simply a recollection of a house with its
age-long tradition. Metaphorically, it refers to ‘India’ and its great but
degrading tradition. At one level, it presents an ironic picture of a large
Hindu family of several generations. It portrays the myths, customs,
rituals or superstitions. It highlights the fate of its family members;
especially of those who can’t find their own identity and existence, and
are assimilated without complaint in this large household. Their children
then serve the elders. By providing a large number of concrete details the
poem does not simply resent any individual family saga but manifest the
socio – economical transition of India and its impact on the Indian
people.
‘Under Another Sky’ by R. Parthasarathy : A Critical Summary
and Analysis
In the poem, ‘Under Another Sky’, R. Parthasarathy expresses his
disenchantment with the language and the country of his dreams –
English and England. The poem begins with the poets return to Chennai
from his self-imposed exile. The poem begins with the poet’s return to
Chennai from his self –imposed exile. The sea believe fort st. George and
Santhome in Chennai appears old and tired. The mood here is reflective
of exhaustion of the poet’s own feeing of exhaustion ofter his journey to
England. The sea and the land between fort st. George and Santhome
pahaps remind him of the British rule in India. The poet gives a vivid
picture of the commercial glory of Chennai in the past. In the distant
past, long before the advent of the British. The Harbour at Chennai in
the past. In the distant past, long before the advent past, long before the
advent of the Bristish, the Harbour at Chennai was busy with many trade
activities. A number of ships laden with merchandise from far off
countries were anchored at the port and there ships traded in spices and
other commodities. Now, it is a tired sea that accosts the visitor. The idea
suggested here is that the Indians were in no way interior to the English
in Conducting international trade even before their arrival.
Very close to the seashore, in the inland of Chennai, a great cirlization of
the Tamils flourished. It is to be remembered that people led a Simple
lift of leisure. The alleys, lands and wells are symbolic of this life of
simplicity. Even today the last remnants of native inclusive are to be
found in the wells and alleys of the interior parts of India and Chennai.
“The sun has done its wornst” is a reference to the British rule and the
change it with their serey smiles and seductive poses delight the people.
Temple - Visiting culture has been replaced by the artificial make –
believe cinema – visiting culture.
 No doubt one could find great developments on the material plane.
During the British rule a number of bridges were constructed. It has a
suggestive meaning too. The river stands for the uncontrollable force of
national resurgence but it is contained by the “bridges” of British rule.
The hourglass was replaced by the “exact chronometer” of Europe. The
idea suggested is that the Tamils were using the indigenous system of
measuring time through hourglass but that was replaced by the modern
clock. The poet rigidly portrays that under the impact of technological
civilization mechanisation of life has been the main change in India after
the British lionization.
The modern Indian culture is compared to an old dying beast without
teeth. It has lost its strength and naturalness and rigor under the impact
of the Western Culture. “Francis Day has seen to that” recalls here that in
1639 Francis Day of the East India Company obtained a grant of a East
India Company obtained a grant of a strip of land on the coast of
coramandel from the Rajah of chandragiri. He built fort St. George in
Chennai and it became the white town. The poet’s hope of writing poetry
about the greatness of his great culture is shattered. He is unable to see
the real Indian culture in Chennai. The poet goes to calcutta in search of
the real India and the real Indian Culture. He expresses his sense of
futility and despair in the question he poses to himself.
“ .................. what have I come
here far from a thousand miles ?”
As in Chennai, he finds the impact of the Western Culture in Calcutta.
The human nature remains the same everywhere. There are a number of
clubs, bass and golf-links for the “wogs” to spend their time idly. The
great irony is that these “wogs” talk about the “impact of the west on
India”. They are in a
way worse than the westerners. In calcutta the dismal scene of porters,
rickshaw pullers, barbers, beggars, haurcers, fortune – tellers and
loungers makes him sad.
The meaning implied is that the aliens who 25 ruled us had plundered
our wealth and made us poor. It may also be indicative of man’s
inhumanity to man. In India the rich people exploit the poor. The rich
have become richer and the poor have become poorer after the “wogs”
took over the rule from the “real” Westerners. The grey sky in calcutta
oppresses the eyes of the poet. It is a reference to the industrial
pollution. The Howrah Bridge reminds the poet of the British rule. It
now looks like a pale diamond in the water. The poet is sad and is not in
a mood to write poems.
With weighty unexpressed words he goes to Jadavpur. It is here that the
poet finds his beloved. He thinks that she will be a personification of
ideal Indian womanhood. But she represents the degenerate Indian
culture, which has yielded to cheap materialism. She is not the loy
maiden he expected her to be but very business like in her attitude to life
and sex. The poet is shocked beyond description. His feelings which arise
in “the dark alleys of his mind” cannot even be identified by himself. He
is in a confused state of mind. He is acutely of his loneliness. This
reinforces his sense of frustration and disappointment. To his dismay he
finds that the so called new culture cannot be dispensed with. He tries to
console himself saying that “the heart needs all”. He feels that one has to
undergo all kinds of experiences and emotional disturbances to
understand life.
The poet feels that he has come back to India only to feel that he has
gained little wisdom. But he has gained a little of it on the banks of
Hooghly in Calcutta, a city designed and built by Job Charnok and it will
help the poet to find his moorings. He says he would carry this wisdom
to another city in “the bone urn of his mind”. The mind is compared to
an urn. Just as an urn carries the ashes of the dead, the mind of the poet
would carry the memories of what he has seen and experienced.
The poet points out that he has reached the age of thirty and his life has
come full circle. Now he has decided “to give quality the other half” of his
life by writing poetry. He has decided to give up all that is puerite and
would show wisdom and quality. “He is alone now, loving only words”.
Finally he finds anchor in his loneliness. He finds no one to share his
emotions; and words are his only faithful companions. He refers to the
process of growing up and this forms the kernel of the poem. The poet
feels that he has lost the gift of childhood innocence and the brightness
of youth in the process of becoming a man but he has gained knowledge
and wisdom. Though stripped of innocence and brightness, his life has
come full wide. He is going to use the newfound wisdom to write poetry.
An Introduction by Kamala Das
Introduction: This poem first appeared in Kamala Das’s very first
volume of poem which was entitled Summer in Calcutta and which was
published in 1965. This poem is wholly autobiographical and may also be
labelled as a confessional poem. It is confessional in the sense that
Kamala Das here takes the reader into her confidence with confessional
poems, this one shows Kamala Das’s candour in dealing with sex, with
bodily functions, and the like. At the same time, it shows Kamala Das’s
capacity for self-assertion. Furthermore, we have here a poem of revolt
against conventionalism and the restraints which society has been
imposing upon women. Kamala Das’s feminism or her advocacy of the
rights of women clearly appears here. Thus this poem reveals to us
several aspects of Kamala Das as a poet.
The poem is written in free verse in a colloquial style which
appropriately allows the free flow of writer’s thoughts and feelings. The
poem is revealing of the poet of her political knowledge, of her linguistic
acquirements, of her physical growth, of the sad experience of her
marriage and of her quest for fulfilling love. What M.K. Naik says of her
poetry in general also applies for this poem: “Kamala Das’s persona is no
nymphomaniac; she is simply every woman who seeks love and she is the
beloved and betrayed; expressing her female hunger”
Word Meanings
Incoherent: unitelligible, not clear and hard to understand
Mutterings: complaints expressed privately
Jilted in love: had a sudden and unkind end of romantic relationship
Know the three languages: Means the poet know three languages
viz. Malayalam, Kannada and English.
Write in two: Means can write in Malayalam and English
Dream in one: Malayalam. It is the mother-tongue in which one
usually dreams.
Why not leave me alone: a glimpse of the poet’s spirit instinctively
rebelling against all forms of restraints.
It is as human as I am human: just as a human is liable to make
mistakes, so Kamala’s language is not without errors.
The speech of the mind: language through which feelings such as
Joys, desires, aspirations etc. of man’s mind is expressed.
Here and not there: to the point and not irrelevant.
Incoherent Mutterings: speech in a low voice not meant to be heard
by others.
Blazing: burning strongly.
Asked for love: expresses the bewilderment of the innocent young girl
who sought love but experienced raw lust which left her feeling assaulted
and defiled.
A quarreler with servants: People advised Kamala to be a quarreler
with servants as otherwise, the latter will get the upper hand.
Belong: to feel comfortable and happy with the situation one is placed
in.
Categorisers: the people with traditional thinking who consider men
and women as a distinct category having specific dress and roles.
Schizophrenia: a mental illness in which a person becomes unable to
link thought, emotion and behaviour leading to withdrawal from reality
and relationship.
Nympho: a woman who has sex and wants to have sex very often.
The hungry haste of rivers: an image through which the lover’s
strong sexual passion is reflected. As river rushes towards oceans for
union with the latter, so the lover moves towards the beloved for the
fulfilment of his sexual desires.
The Ocean’s tireless waiting: an image through which the beloved’s
infinite patience for a proper sexual union with her lover is expressed.
The ocean here is an objective correlative for beloved’s psychic state.
I am sinner…. I too … the poet sums up her introduction by
identifying herself with countless others around, all of whom represent a
bundle of contrary features.
Critical Appreciation

An Introduction is obviously an autobiographical poem written by

Kamala Das Which first appeared in her Summer in Calcutta (1965). The
poem is a brilliant example of her confessionalism wherein she unfolds
her entire self with extreme frankness and candour. In this poem,the
poet expresses her experiences which were strictly private and personal.
The poem is a revolt against conventionalism and restraints put against
Indian women. In this poem, the question of whether or not Indians
should write in English is put to rest. The poem is also remarkable for its
daring innovativeness.
The poet says she is not interested in politics but claims that since the
time of Nehru, she can name all the people who have been in office. She
implicitly states the fact that politics in the world is a game of the few
selected elite who ironically govern a democracy by claiming that she can
repeat them as fluently as days of the week or names of the month. The
fact that she remembers them so clearly indicates that the same people
have been in power over and over again.
Next, she identifies herself as an Indian, born in Malabar and very brown
in colour. She speaks in three languages, writes in two and dreams in
one, sharing the notion that dreams have a common language of their
own. Kamala Das reiterates that the medium of writing is not as
important as the amount of comfort one needs. Since it is not her mother
tongue, people have asked her not to write in English. In comparison,
any time she had a meeting with a critic, colleagues, or visiting cousins,
the fact that English was a colonial language predominant as a means of
communication during British times attracted still more scrutiny. She
stresses that all the imperfections and queerness is her own, the
vocabulary she speaks becomes her own.
It’s half-English, half-Hindi, which sounds pretty funny, but the point is
that it’s fair. All that makes it more human is its imperfections, making it
similar to what we term normal. As it voices its joys, sorrows and
dreams, it is the tongue of her expression and sentiment. Cawing is as
critical to her as it is to the crows and the lions roaring. It is not, though
incomplete, a deaf, blind expression like that of storm trees or rain
clouds. Nor does it echo the “funeral pyre’s incoherent mutterings.”
Rather, it has its own intrinsic natural coherence.
She continues to share her own storey. She was a child and she was later
told by strangers that she had grown up and her body had begun to
exhibit signs of puberty. She didn’t seem to understand this
interpretation, though she was still a child at her heart. When she asked
her soulmate for love, not knowing what else to ask, the sixteen-year-old
took her to his apartment. The word is a potent critique of child marriage
that drives children into such a predicament when they are still very
childish at heart. She felt beaten even though he didn’t beat her, and her
body seemed crushed by her own weight. This is a rather emphatic
expression of how a sixteen-year-old ‘s body is unprepared for the attack
under which it is exposed. Ashamed of her femininity, she shrank
pitifully.
By being tomboyish, she attempts to overcome such embarrassment.
And then, as she chooses to cover her femininity in male clothes, the
guardians impose traditional feminine attire, with reminders to conform
into a woman’s socially defined features, to become a woman and a
mother, and to be limited to the domestic routine. In order not to make
herself a psychic or a maniac, she is threatened to live inside the four
walls of her women’s room. They also ask her to catch her tears when
rejected in love. As they seem to categorise any person based on merely
whimsical points, she calls them categorizers.
Towards the end of the poem, the poet mentions his experiences with a
man. She doesn’t take names, but the symbolism of her relationship is
what she’s trying to express. He’s every other man who wants a woman,
like the embodiment of the hungry rush of the river, while she’s every
other woman, the embodiment of patience like the tireless waiting of the
ocean. When he asks a man who he is, he responds saying he is I. The
poet, herein through symbolism, introduces to the readers the inherent
male ego of a patriarchal society. He is rigid in his mind as a “sword in
his sheath,” and his opinions are not open to debate. It is this “I,” i.e. the
male ego, that justifies lying drunk at midnight in the night in a hotel in a
foreign area, that justifies complacent laughter, that makes a woman’s
love and then feels embarrassed that she is so easily carried away, and
yet dies with a rattling in her throat, as anyone else. Death reveals the
futility of the male ego, revealing that “he” is not greater.
The poet then ends by saying that this “I” should not be different from
“her,” and so I am both the sinner and the saint, both the betrayer and
the betrayed, as well as the man and the woman. There are no pleasures
of “I” that she doesn’t get to feel, not any pains that she hasn’t been
through with through. Thus “She” is “I” too.
Analysis Of An Introduction
An Introduction is a self-portrait and the anatomy of Kamala Das’s
mind. The poem recounts the major incidents of her life which have
affected her experience. The poem is remarkable for its structure even
though it encompasses a diversity of facts and circumstances. The rules
of punctuation have been fully observed. The lines are almost of the
same length. The words used and the use of phraseology show Das’s
talent of choosing the right words and putting them in the most effective
order. The poem contains many felicities of word and phrase. Written in
free verse the poem has neither any rhyming scheme nor any metrical
arrangement. The natural speech rhythm, pauses and punctuation make
the poem conversational in style.
When you read the poem the first thing that may strike your mind is the
title An Introduction. Whose introduction does it talk about? A little
thought reveals the poem is an introduction of the poet herself. But a
deeper thought reveals that it is an introduction of ‘every woman’ The
opening line of the poem ‘I don’t know politics but I know the names of
those in power beginning with Nehru’ makes it obvious that she does not
want to assume any political identity. She rather prefers a national
identity. Mark the following line: “I am Indian, very brown in colour,
born in Malabar, here the poet uses the words which are identity
markers – ‘Indian’, ‘brown in colour’ and ‘born in Malabar’. The narrator
boasts of her linguistic proficiency “I speak three languages, write in two,
dream in one”, to prove that she is a capable writer and fully aware of her
role and responsibilities as a writer. Her Indian identity and linguistic
ability is emphasized to reinforce her claim of writing in English. The
following illustrations advance her claim further:
“The language I speak
Becomes mine, its distortions, its queerness, All mine, mine alone. It is
half English, half, Indian.funny perhaps, but it is honest, It is as human
as I am human, don’t you see? ”
The narrator asserts that the language with all its distortions of
grammar, structure or pronunciation belongs to the users, no matter
what nationality they may belong to. The narrator explains that the
language is ‘as human (liable to error) as the narrator is human. She
makes her case to use English very strongly by claiming that ‘it is useful
to her as cawing/Is to crows or roaring to the lions’. English comes so
naturally to her that in it she can voice her ‘joys’, her longings’ and her
‘Hopes’.
The narrator is so much vexed with the suggestions that she further
illustrates her point with a series of images to clarify what the writing
English is not like. She says that English “is not deaf, blind speech”/ “Of
trees in storms or of monsoon clouds or rain or the/ Incoherent
mutterings of the blazing funeral pyre”. The last line here may refer to
the decadent legacy of the British Culture.
The poem shifts to another story which talks of the narrator’s early
marriage and her consequent psychological hurt:
“He drew a youth of sixteen into the/ Bedroom and closed the door. He
did not beat me/ But my sad woman-body felt so beaten./The weight of
my breast and womb crushed me/ I shank pitifully”.
The above lines are remarkable for showing the poet’s talent in choosing
and putting the best words in the most effective combinations. The
whole picture of the misuse of sex becomes vivid. The last two lines
create a true picture of its consequence. As a mark of protest the poet
takes resort to western dress:
Then… I wore a shirt and my
Brother’s trousers, cut my hair short and ignored My womanliness”.
This open revolt created strong resentment amongst her relatives and
wellwishers. Their sharpness of reactions is reflected very effectively by
the poet through the appropriate selection and arrangement of words
and the speaker’s tone:
“Fit in, oh
Belong, cried the categorizers. Don’t sit/On walls or peep through our
lace-draped window. Be Amy or Kamla, or better Still be Madhavikutti.
It is time to Choose a name, a role”.
Can you see that the phrase ‘Fit in’ and the word ‘belong’ are simple
words but their arrangement in the poetic scheme makes their meanings
very expressive, deep and varied? Similarly, the words like ‘cry’ and
‘categorisers’ too are equally simple but very suggestive in meanings. For
example, the word ‘cry’ carries with it a sense of anxiety and force and
categorizer refers to people with traditional thinking who understand
things in terms of category and class only. The later suggestion that the
narrator must never pretend to be split-personality suffering from a
psychological disorder or tend to act as a nympho shows further griping
clout on her. This was not all; the narrator is further instructed:
“Don’t cry embarrassingly loud when/jilted in love”.
The poem now moves to another story in which Kamala Das’s ideal of
Man-woman relationship is indicated:
“….He is everyman/’Who wants a woman, Just as I am every/ Woman
who seeks love. In/ him… the hungry haste/Of rivers in me…the ocean’s
tireless/waiting”.
Here the words ‘want’ and ‘seek’ is notable. ‘Want’ refers here to every
man who needs a woman for his service as a subordinate. ‘Seek’ means
every woman who badly misses love, so they keep on looking for what
they want their whole life. The last two lines through the use of beautiful
images which serve as objective correlative very successfully explain the
sexual behaviours of men and women. ‘The hungry haste /of rivers and
the ocean’s tireless/waiting’ represent the psychological states of men
and women respectively. You may note here that the word ‘I’ is repeated
at several times to emphasize the women’s quest of identity. Explaining
the nature and position of women the narrator says ‘I am sinner, /I am
saint. I am the beloved and the Betrayed’. The point she is trying to make
is that be it, man or woman, none is wholly a sinner or wholly a saint. We
all are a balance of both. In that case, there is no point in viewing the
women as the other. Finally, Kamala Das’s idea of fulfilled love is neatly
presented in “I have no joys which are not yours, no aches which are not
yours”.
TRIBUTE TO PAPA BY MAMTA KALIA
Summary of the poem 'Tribute to Papa' by Mamta Kalia.
'Tribute to Papa' by Mamta Kalia is a challenging poem in which Mamta
tries to compel the readers to understand the hardships of being a
woman that the society wants her to be. In this poem, she portrays men
dominance over women in all matters of life. Mamta tries to question her
father why should his traditional values determine the fate of his
daughter. She questions whether if he cared enough for his daughter's
own voice and opinion. Tribute to Papa pays a different kind of tribute to
a father. It is rather the poet trying to sort out the different values that
she and her father had. In the poem, Mamta mentions how she longed
for love and care but she hardly received any from her father. She also
talks about disowning her father which shows how hurt she was.
Although her father has died, she could not stop blaming him for not
loving and supporting her as much as she needed. In the end, the poet
mentions how she only longed for a good relationship with her father.
Mamta Kalia’s “Tribute to Papa”, is according to Eunice De Souza, one of
the most compelling poems. She figures out an opposition not only to
men’s dominance over women but women’s acceptance of men’s
dominance Mamta Kalia’s personal rejection of the non-materialist
father however ironic in its tone is a ‘tribute’ to the contemporary
materialistic Father India. The poem moves from one hateful statement
to another, with extreme indifference to traditional Indian values. Not
only are the father’s ideals for the daughter rejected scornfully, but his
normal way of life insulted. As a daughter Mamta Kalia is preoccupied by
the father figure. Father in her case becomes a symbol of male-
dominance. In her poem A Tribute to Papa Mamta Kalia pays a different
kind of tribute to her father, stating that her ideas and values clash with
those of her father‘s: "Everything about you clashes with nearly
everything about me."Mamta Kalia also rebels against patriarchy and the
restrained world of middle-class respectability. Such poems are haunted
by the memories of her father: "But you‘ve always wanted to be a model
man, A sort of an ideal. When you can‘t think of doing anything, You
start praying, Spending useless hours at the temple. "In Tribute to Papa
she interrogates even her father for his observance to customs, traditions
and complains of the generation gap she feels with him. She has liberal
views but at the same time she finds it hard to defy the commandments
of her father: "You suspect I am having a love-affair these days, But
you‘re too shy to have it confirmed What if my tummy starts showing
gradually And I refuse to have it curetted? But I‘ll be careful, Papa, Or I
know you‘ll at once think of suicide." The poem ‘Tribute to Papa and
Other Poems’ brings out the contrast between her father’s idealism
which could not give prosperity on him and her fascination for modern
life which is without idealism and values: Who cares for you Papa? Who
cares for your clean thoughts, clean words, clean teeth? Who wants to be
an angel like you? Who want this ?"These days I am seriously thinking of
disowning you, "The mutual disenchantment has grown so much that
she even thinks of disowning her father and his blessedness. She mourns
about her father’s status that he could not make a grand and ‘cozy place’
for himself so he is an unsuccessful man from the ‘worldly point of view.
If he had enough guts to ‘smuggle eighty thousand watches’ then she
would proudly tell everyone about her father’s import-export business.
To smuggle eighty thousand watches at a stroke, And I‘d proudly say, My
father‘s in import-export business, you know I‘d be proud of you then.
She asserts that she does not want to be a model. She expresses her
frustration over her father idealism in these lines, "You want me to be
like you, Papa, Or like Rani Lakshmibai. You‘re not sure what greatness
is, But you want me to be great. Thus, in this poem she rejects her
father‘s notions of greatness and the Indian model of a woman as
Laxmibai who fought and died in one sense not for the sake of women
but for her son that patriarchy would not mind. Mamta Kalia rejects her
father‘s life of limited dreams. She proposes to choose her own course
and follow her ideals. Ironically, she claims her father to be an
unsuccessful man and defines the clash between the old and new value.