Question

critical appreciation of book sita the warrior in 150 words​

Answer 1

The poem “Sita” reveals Toru Dutt’s love for Indian myths and her sensitivity to women’s sufferings and victimization even in the ancient times.The poem forms a part of the collection of poems Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan which was published posthumously in 1882 with a foreword by Edmund Gosse who wrote, “We believe that the original English poems which we present to the public for the first time today will be ultimately found to continue Toru’s chief legacy to posterity.” This is considered to be her most mature contribution which shows how much rooted she was into the soil of Hindu thought and tradition. There are nine ballads in this collection based on Indian myths and legends: “Savitri”, “Lakshman”, “Jogadhya Uma”, “The Royal Ascetic and the Hind”, “Dhruva”, “Butto”, “Sindhu”, “Prahlad” and “Sita” and miscellaneous poems. With these poems, a new phase started in the development of Toru Dutt’s poetic genius as she desired to give poetic expression to her intense love for her homeland and its traditions from which she had been alienated for a long period by French and English literatures. Her one year’s study of Sanskrit and the inspiration she got from her recollection of the religious stories told by her mother bring her back to the very heart of India. Haydn Moore Williams remarks about these poems, “Apart from her mastery of English verse forms, the poems show the emergence of an independent poetic individuality. The themes of these ballads are sublime.” Hari Mohan Prasad and Chakradhar Prasad Singh call this collection “a cultural and philosophical anthropology and a religious and moral instrument”. The ballads are not only rich in philosophical thought and moral vision but also reveal the poet’s stylistic maturity, felicity of expression, descriptive splendour, narrative vigour, lyrical simplicity and romantic remoteness.