Question

Explanation of poem an introduction by kamala das

Answer 1

This should be considered an important poem for more than one reason. First of all, the poem makes a very clear and significant state­ment relating to the question why some Indian writers choose to write in English rather than in an Indian language, for instance in their mother tongue. Secondly, this poem illustrates Kamala Das’s ability to “successfully marshal diverse and tangential themes in one controlled poem” (Daruwalla). Starting with a reference to politics, the poem moves on to a statement of convictions in respect of her choice of medium and leads to convulsive outbursts of feelings of hurt and shame as also to statements on love and marriage which make for self- exposure and confession.


The poem carries with it most of the themes which one associates with her poetry, —themes of love, sex, loneliness, courage, self-exposure and search for identity. Most importantly, this poem illustrates Kamala Das’s daring innovativeness and as Prof C.D. Narasimhaiah has pointed out, she is perhaps the only Indian poet who owes little to Yeats or Eliot and trusted to her own resources and to her culture.

It is half-English, half Indian, funny perhaps… a mind that sees and hears and is aware-. Kamala Das has been one of the poets who created her own Indian-English idiom, an idiom which could recapture most suc­cessfully what the writer ‘feels’ in her own language. She has created for herself a style which reflects both her Indian and feminine sensi­bility