Openness in the Poetry of Kamala Das: A Study with Special Reference to Some Selected Poems

Abstract

Kamala Das, one of the poetic-trinity of Indo-Anglian poets, is also one of the most distinctive and original Of all Indian poets. She published only three volumes of poetry: Summer in Calcutta(1965)The Descendants (1967) and The Old Playhouse and Other Poems (1973). Her success as well as failure mainly rests on these Volumes of poetry. Her poems are characterized by extreme sincerity, love-longingnes, frustration, disillusionment and frankness. The main reasons of her popularity as a poetess are confession and open expression. She confesses all her sin and crime, guilt & punishment, and openly discusses all her private matters as well as outer activities. She expresses her inner life so clearly that it seems as if she lost her feminine sensibility. Her free verse freely argues the liberation of Indian woman. Quest for love, sex and emotional fulfillment and failure in sexual life also find clear expression in her poetry. She also gives a detailed description of some female organs. As her art grew matured and she became aged, Kamala Das became so courageous that she did not feel hesitation to stand against social authority and tradition. Thus, she frankly and nakedly expressed the guilt of her parents and the responsibility of male dominant society upon her life. So, Devendra Kohli rightly remarks “Her poetry mirrors her life in all its nakedness” (76)