Self-Imposed Restrictions of Feminine Love in Kamala Das’ Poetry
1Mrs. B. Ajantha Parthasarathi, 2 Dr A. RamaSubbiah
1Assistant Professor of English, 2Assistant Professor of English,
1Sri S. Ramasamy Naidu Memorial College, Sattur. 2Mannar Tirumalai Naicker College, Madurai
E-mail Id: 1ajanthaaju@gmail.com, 2drramasubbiah11@gmail.com
Abstract Kamala Das has created a permanent place for herself in contemporary Indo-English poetry. Das as a poet treads on familiar grounds, and she never tries to transgress her self-imposed restrictions. Her poems bring to the fore her boldness and freedom in speaking aloud the secret longings and aspirations of womankind. Her woman pleads for domestic security and the inborn desire to be liberated. She …show more content…
It shows that in a male dominated world; she tried to assert her individuality, to maintain her feminine identity, and from this revolt arose all her troubles, psychological traumas and frustrations. A bird’s eye-view of her poetry would serve to clarify the point. Love and sex form the main theme in Kamala Das’ poetry. Her poems mostly deal with unfulfilled love and yearning for love. The Dance of the Eunuchs is a good example of a poem dealing with the theme. She parallels her suppressed desire with the eunuchs. The dance of the eunuchs is a dance of the sterile, and, therefore, the unfulfilled and unquenchable love of the woman in the poet. The dance of the eunuchs whose joyless life reflects the poetess’ fractured personality is a noticeable piece of autobiographical poetry. Beneath the fiery gulmohur, with Long braids flying, dark eyes flashing, they danced and They dance, oh, they danced till they bled... There were green Tattoos on their cheeks, jasmines in their hair, some Were dark and some were almost fair. Their …show more content…
They were thin in limbs and dry; like half-burnt logs from Funeral pyres, a drought and rottenness Were in each of them. (The Dance of the Eunuchs)
Their dancing movements reveal their “vacant ecstasy”, the sheet meaninglessness of their life. Their appearance reveals their inner anguish; their dry limbs looking like “half-burnt logs like funeral pyres” stand for their helplessness and their sterility. In the dance of the eunuchs Kamala Das finds a close parallel to her own loveless life – a life of emotional vacuity. In this world of emotional vacuity and “vacant ecstasy” love is a far cry.
Self-imposed Restrictions of Feminine Love in Kamala Das’ Poem In poem after poem Kamala Das is preoccupied with love, sex and frustration. Married at the early age of sixteen, Kamala Das could not find the fulfilment of love in married life, a bond that she could not untie. Love proved to be a pretension. She was tied to the tedium and monotony of sexuality: I was child, and later they Told me I grew, for I became tall, my limbs Swelled and one or two places sprouted hair when I asked for love, not knowing what else to ask For, he drew a youth of sixteen into
1Mrs. B. Ajantha Parthasarathi, 2 Dr A. RamaSubbiah
1Assistant Professor of English, 2Assistant Professor of English,
1Sri S. Ramasamy Naidu Memorial College, Sattur. 2Mannar Tirumalai Naicker College, Madurai
E-mail Id: 1ajanthaaju@gmail.com, 2drramasubbiah11@gmail.com
Abstract Kamala Das has created a permanent place for herself in contemporary Indo-English poetry. Das as a poet treads on familiar grounds, and she never tries to transgress her self-imposed restrictions. Her poems bring to the fore her boldness and freedom in speaking aloud the secret longings and aspirations of womankind. Her woman pleads for domestic security and the inborn desire to be liberated. She …show more content…
It shows that in a male dominated world; she tried to assert her individuality, to maintain her feminine identity, and from this revolt arose all her troubles, psychological traumas and frustrations. A bird’s eye-view of her poetry would serve to clarify the point. Love and sex form the main theme in Kamala Das’ poetry. Her poems mostly deal with unfulfilled love and yearning for love. The Dance of the Eunuchs is a good example of a poem dealing with the theme. She parallels her suppressed desire with the eunuchs. The dance of the eunuchs is a dance of the sterile, and, therefore, the unfulfilled and unquenchable love of the woman in the poet. The dance of the eunuchs whose joyless life reflects the poetess’ fractured personality is a noticeable piece of autobiographical poetry. Beneath the fiery gulmohur, with Long braids flying, dark eyes flashing, they danced and They dance, oh, they danced till they bled... There were green Tattoos on their cheeks, jasmines in their hair, some Were dark and some were almost fair. Their …show more content…
They were thin in limbs and dry; like half-burnt logs from Funeral pyres, a drought and rottenness Were in each of them. (The Dance of the Eunuchs)
Their dancing movements reveal their “vacant ecstasy”, the sheet meaninglessness of their life. Their appearance reveals their inner anguish; their dry limbs looking like “half-burnt logs like funeral pyres” stand for their helplessness and their sterility. In the dance of the eunuchs Kamala Das finds a close parallel to her own loveless life – a life of emotional vacuity. In this world of emotional vacuity and “vacant ecstasy” love is a far cry.
Self-imposed Restrictions of Feminine Love in Kamala Das’ Poem In poem after poem Kamala Das is preoccupied with love, sex and frustration. Married at the early age of sixteen, Kamala Das could not find the fulfilment of love in married life, a bond that she could not untie. Love proved to be a pretension. She was tied to the tedium and monotony of sexuality: I was child, and later they Told me I grew, for I became tall, my limbs Swelled and one or two places sprouted hair when I asked for love, not knowing what else to ask For, he drew a youth of sixteen into