Summary of the poem the flowers of lotus
Answers
At a deeper and symbolic level, the poem deals with the operations of psyche, love and flora. Love asks flora for the best solution to have a happy and peaceful life. At first, flora points to what is going on in psyche, the rising and falling of the conflicting thoughts and feelings – pride (lily) and sobriety (rose), purity-love, stateliness-deliciousness, life-death etc. Love then asks for a solution in which contraries merge and transform into a harmonious whole. And flora offers ‘the Lotus’ – the symbol of the unified vision as talked of in Indian Philosophy.
Dutt shows her superb mythopoetic imagination. Love and Flora both are related to Greek and Roman myths. In Latin mythology love is Cupid. He loved the beautiful maiden Psyche. Flora in Roman mythology is Goddess of Flowers and springtime.
The poem perfectly embodies the structure of Petrarchan sonnet. The first eight lines of the poem project the tension generated by the debate between the rival flower factions forwarding the positive and negative points about rose and lily, the ultimate claimants of superiority. The next six lines diffuse this tension as the goddess Flora sets both the rose and the lily aside and selects Lotus which has deliciousness and redness of rose, and stateliness and whiteness of lily. The poem follows a rhyme scheme of ‘abba abba cd cd dc’. The figures of speech used include personification (Love, Flora, rose, lily); simile (“Rose can never tower like pale lily”, “a flower delicious as the rose”, “stately as the lily”); metaphor (Lotus is considered “queenliest” of flower. The flowers are “rivals”. They think of ‘high honour’. One can not tower’ the other). The poet has used both dialogues and descriptions. Short dialogues of love show his curiosity and impatient mind. He fumbles in the choice of beautiful shown through affirmation and negation. The used of hyphen tells this all.
“But of what colour? – “Rose-Red” love first chose,
Then prayed, - “No, lily-white, - or, both provide”.
In the ends the poet describes the solution.
As Dr. Mary Ellis Gibson notes, “In Hindu and Buddhist iconography, the lotus connotes purity and spiritual realization arising from the muck of creation. The goddess Lakshmi (associated with wealth, beauty, wisdom) is often depicted on a full-blown lotus. Thus Toru substitutes her own version of beauty, inspiration, and poetic power for conventional European ones—the lotus, combining the red and the white, exceeds even Juno’s beauty”. It is also said the lotus’s unfolding petals signify the expansion of the soul. Because the lotus is the National Flower of India, Dutt may have intended to inject geopolitical undertones into this “battle” of beauty. Dutt uses her European influences—the poem's form, language, Roman mythology—in order to establish the Indian and Hindu dominance of the lotus. She chooses not to portray the obvious importance of the lotus to the Hindu gods but rather to show its supremacy to the culture that her readers would assume to be the dominant one.
The Lotus presents a harmonious vision of life. The message is that superiority lies in the simultaneous presence of opposing qualities. The poem has an airy atmosphere, abstract symbolic characters and an idealistic message.
Answer:
Toru Dutt is one of the famous Indo-Anglican poets. Most of her poems have an Indian theme and an Indian background. The poem, 'The Lotus' is a sonnet in the Petrarchan type. Toru Dutt's mastery over the sonnet form is proved in this poem. The sonnet is divided into two divisions, the Octave and the Sestet. The octave consists of eight lines and the sestet consists of six lines. A sonnet deals with a single idea, the octave proposing and the sestet resolving. Within 14 lines of the sonnet, Toru Dutt raises a problem in the Octave and resolves it in the sestet. In this poem, Toru Dutt presents the idea that the Indian Lotus is the most beautiful of all flowers. For a long time, Lily and Rose had been fighting for the title 'Queen of flowers.' Each flower with its own support from poets, claimed for the title. At this time, God of Love came to Goddess Flora asking for a flower, which would be the unchallenged queen of flowers. She wanted for a flower, which was stately as the Lily and as delicious as the Rose. Goddess Flora gave God of Love the lotus flower and resolved the long standing quarrel between Lily and Rose. Great poets supported the flowers according to their wish, and some poets even raised the doubt if the lily was beautiful than the rose. Lotus combines the redness of the rose with the paleness of the lily. Goddess Flora created Lotus, which was both rose red and lily white.
One more thing to note is that the lotus is a flower of significance both to Indian and the Hindu religion. We can understand Toru Dutt's affection for an Indian flower and also she wanted to establish the superiority of Hindu religion over other religions in the world. As Toru Dutt was brought up and educated abroad, she always turned to classical mythology to establish her stand.
The Lotus, Toru Dutt
Love came to Flora asking for a flower
That would of flowers be undisputed queen,
The lily and the rose, long long had been
Rivals for that high honour. Bards of power
Had sung their claims. "The rose can never tower
Like the pale lily with her Juno mien" -
"But is the lily lovelier?" Thus between
Flower fractions rang the strife in Psyche's bower.
"Give me a flower delicious as the rose
And stately as the lily in her pride"-
"But of what colour?"- "Rose red," Love first chose,
Then prayed, - "No, lily-white, - or both provide";
And Flora gave the lotus, "rose red" dyed
And "lily white," queenliest flower that blows
Resources: Reference books at the local library