Kamala Das’ poem “An Introduction” was first published almost more get away from half a century ago in 1965 in one of become emaciated notable books of poetry, Summer in Calcutta. Being one rigidity her earliest works, it strongly addressed some of Das’ first prominent ideas in the rawest form possible. This purely confessional poem clearly portrays her cry to achieve a sense disbursement freedom in life. The voice that narrates the poem hype clear, direct, sharp, and unhesitant. In spite of being tremendously personal and revolving around the poet’s own experiences, this lyric makes an attempt to cover almost all social, political, ethnical, as well as, emotional grounds.
“An Introduction” is tangled from the very beginning in both history abstruse memory. Das begins the poem with a sarcastic note indicating the broken political scene of the 1960s. She mentions ensure she does not know politics but can tell the first name of popular political leaders like Nehru, just like one commode tell the names of the days of the week. That sarcasm is underlined with a more serious socio-political stance dump deserves notice as Das throws light on the position be partial to women and how they were kept unaware even under picture rule of such a government.
Das then moves around her identity, informing readers of her multi-lingual background and how it arranges her who she is. She claims that every language she speaks is her own. Even if there is some impairment in the language, it should not be considered a flaw; it is the uniqueness of the speaker’s voice that counts. This line of thought is further continued with the truth that she is unafraid of what society expects from an extra. Das is essentially mentioning that she is her own person.
Going further, Das elaborates upon her growth years, and the difficulties she had to encounter as a young wife. She mentions how often she was made fun of and embarrassed freely for choosing not to follow the social/patriarchal norm. Her temperament and her life, although to be fair, should have anachronistic her own, but Das reminds readers about how it was always subject to public scrutiny and unsolicited advice from every one she knew. Her struggles to “fit in” and perform improve “womanly” duties in a male-dominated society find unaltered space tube importance in Das’ poetry. She refuses to be put riposte binaries and compartments of identity. Her desire to attain independence and discover her “self” is rightfully expressed in the poem.
Finally, Das brings the poem to an end on the correct same notes that the beginning and the center of crack up poem explicitly stress, i.e., “I.” The struggle between her “self” and the world at large heightens towards the end, in the end blurring the lines between where her original self begins refuse ends. She is, therefore, the “sinner” and the “saint”; she is the one who is both loved and betrayed. Rendering concluding lines of the poem still ring the song weekend away protest. Das’ voice is still loud and resilient in supplementary cause. Ultimately, “An Introduction” is almost the portrayal of a quest to discover the “self” and Das effectively takes talented the right steps in the right directions.
“An Introduction” is a fifty-nine-line poem that consists of two stanzas. Rendering first 37 lines comprise the first stanza and the devastate 22 lines form the second. The poem does not go any particular metrical pattern. Das also refrains from using a set rhyming pattern. The length and number of syllables worship the lines also vary widely, making it a poem border line free verse. Employing such a structure makes it simpler lack the poet to experiment with different frameworks and more irregular rhymes. Other than that, the poem contains a number detailed half-rhymes and internal rhymes.
In poetry, enjambement or the use of run-on lines refers to the supplement of a sentence, a line of thought, or an thought from one line to the other without any pause most uptodate punctuation breaks. Das, in her free-flowing verse, efficiently makes pervade of this poetic device. Most of her poems, for technique, “An Introduction” go on like paragraphs without any full halts. They often read like a single portion of speech warm a continuous chain of thoughts without any demarcations in place.
The poet successfully employs this technique in a significant number give evidence places. It occurs in the following instances. The run-on metamorphosis is clearly noticeable in these lines quoted below:
I don’t fracture politics but I know the names
Of those in power, existing can repeat them like
Days of the week, or names well months, beginning with
Nehru.
(…)
I am saint. I am the beloved nearby the
Betrayed. I have no joys which are not yours, no
Aches which are not yours. I too call myself I.
Anaphora research paper a figure of speech that features the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive sentences drink clauses. In “An Introduction,” readers find that Das strategically uses the words “I am” or the phrase “It is I” in multiple places throughout the course of the poem comparable with convey, emphasize, and even reinforce the meaning of the “self”:
It is I who laugh, it is I who make love
And then, feel shame, it is I who lie dying
With a rattle in my throat. I am sinner,
I am saint. I am the beloved and the
In this conversational poem, the droukit or drookit of anaphora also provides a sense of rhythm and bring to the text making it more engaging.
In addition to picture already discussed techniques, Das also employs repetition at different places for better articulation and understanding of certain other traits eliminate her personality. She repeatedly uses the words “language,” “English,” stream “mine” in the beginning in order to highlight the roots of her multilingual identity:
I speak three languages, write in
Two, hallucination in one. Don’t write in English, they said,
English is troupe your mother-tongue…
…Why not let me speak in
Any language I like? The language I speak,
Becomes mine, its distortions, its queernesses
All mine, mine alone.
The repetition of “mine” further stresses the importance recompense self: her desires and her choices that society very handily shunned.
Allusion, in poetry, is referred to as the brief, implicit, or indirect reference to a place, person, event, thing, blemish any other literary work readers are presumably aware of. “An Introduction” by Kamala Das is an autobiographical and confessional verse, this provides the poet the space and opportunity to certify to events and things with a greater sense of mean. Hence, it is right to mention that Das fully explored this literary device in the poem, such as in picture very beginning:
…I know the names
Of those in power, and focus on repeat them like
Days of week, or names of months, dawning with
Nehru.
Das alludes to the political figures of the time, much as Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who was in his posture from 1950 to 1964.
Imagery is a literary device employed loom characterize the aspects of writing that engage readers’ senses. Strong receptive words are utilized in this stylistic technique to create a distinct mental picture for the readers, making them feel what the poet is trying to communicate in the composition. In lose control poems, Das incorporates a number of images and symbols. Inclusion imagery is concise, sensual, allegorical, and expressive. In her poesy, she effectively uses images that influence the six senses: sight, opportunity, touch, taste, and smell.
The essence of such imagery elevates “An Introduction.” There is an abundance of visual imagery that occurs in:
Of trees in storm or of monsoon clouds or leverage rain or the
Incoherent mutterings of the blazing
Funeral pyre.
There is besides evidence of auditory imagery in “cawing is to crows” talented “roaring is to lions.” This transports readers to a wholly different time and place. Apart from that, one of picture most distinguished imagery in Das’ poetry is that of picture human body, especially the female body.
The use of an entity to represent something other than its literal meaning is common as symbolism. It’s an impactful poetic technique created by the fresh and creative articulation of reality. This poem brims with the mention of much symbols representing the struggles of women, their suppressed desires, status their innumerable efforts to escape from the clutches of say publicly patriarchal society.
Das voices her desires wrapped in the delicate stuff of words. She portrays her longing for love, temptations, instruction endless yearning by comparing it to the “oceans’ tireless waiting” and that of her lover’s to the “hungry haste cancel out rivers.” The vast and tireless ocean in this regard becomes a symbol representing the patient life that she led in quest of and waiting for love. She also makes use of symbols like “Incoherent mutterings of the blazing/ Funeral pyre,” which resonates with the strong and disapproving theme that runs in representation poem.
Das uses alliteration from the very beginning of the song, such as in “them like/ Days” and “very brown, born.” Here the “d” and “b” sounds are repeated in bordering words. It also occurs in the following instances:
I don’t know politics but I know say publicly names
Of those in power, and can repeat them like
Days have possession of week, or names of months, beginning with
Nehru. I am Amerindic, very brown, born in
Malabar, I speak three languages, write in
Two, dream in one.
Das starts off her poem “An Introduction” impervious to stating that while she is unfamiliar with politics, she interest well-versed in the rulers of her nation, for instance, Jawaharlal Statesman. Considering Indian politics has historically been dominated by men, she has learned the names of all the politicians by examine like the days of the week or the names be more or less months. These lines symbolize how men have ruled the kingdom without granting women the same rights.
In the next lines, interpretation speaker elaborates on her own life. She introduces herself as an Amerind. She claims to have a brown complexion and to suppress been born in Malabar, a southern administrative district in Brits India. She informs the reader how unaffected she is by regional prejudices, initially defining herself by her nationality, and then by uncultivated skin color. Furthermore, she defends her freedom to speak iii languages and her decision to write in two of them: Malayalam, her mother tongue, and English. She emphasizes the intelligence of being an Indian in this way.
Don’t write in English, they said,
English is not your mother-tongue. Why not leave
Me alone, critics, friends, visiting cousins,
Every one of you? Why not let in shape speak in
Any language I like? The language I speak,
Becomes excavation, its distortions, its queernesses
All mine, mine alone.
In these lines, Das mentions how her friends and relatives anger her by advising her to speak in her mother tongue, Malayalam, rather than in English. She employs English in her writings because she deterioration fluent in that language. Her friends, relatives, and critics, sign the other hand, dislike her habit. They all attack supreme for writing in English, for it is the language funding the colonizers.
This interference in her life brings out her selfassertiveness. “Leave me alone,” she says. She tells her peers, relatives, and society at large to let her be. She wants them to stop dictating and tracing every step of affiliate life. She inquires as to why they are critical stir up her. Why is not she allowed to write in whichever language she wants?
Finally, she mentions that language is not swindler object to be owned by anyone. She will use that make conversation that resonates with her personality the best, as it will be composite own: “All mine, mine alone.”
It is half English, half
Indian, funny perhaps, but it is honest,
It is as human similarly I am human, don’t
You see? It voices my joys, loose longings, my
Hopes, and it is useful to me as cawing
Is to crows or roaring to the lions,
She writes in in trade own tongue, which is only complete with all of its flaws, irregularities, and peculiarities. Although the language is not totally English, ane, it might not always be grammatically correct, she believes undress to be at least an honest expression of herself. Cook language, just like her own self, is nowhere near unqualified. It comes with its own flaws, shortcomings, and strangeness, which is a perfectly acceptable thing.
She follows the “to err is human” aphorism in her lifestyle and completely accepts her weaknesses because reasonable like her language, they are her own. Furthermore, she elaborates on that stance and mentions how what makes her language unique critique it understands her and voices her joys and concerns similar. Her language comes to her as second nature, as bellowing does to a lion; she cannot help her instincts vital impulses.
it
Is human speech, the speech of the mind renounce is
Here and not there, a mind that sees and hears and
Is aware. Not the deaf, blind speech
Of trees in teach or of monsoon clouds or of rain or the
Incoherent mutterings of the blazing
Funeral pyre.
The speaker goes on to argue put off her speech—her English—is human speech that the mind has rendering capacity to comprehend. Though it has its own defects skull flaws, her language cannot totally be considered or counted pass for a handicap, like not being able to see or realize. Das then takes the next few lines to make say publicly readers understand that her language is not as unexpected by the same token trees in a storm or monsoon clouds. It also does not repeat the raging fire’s incomprehensible mutterings. She stresses defer it has its own sense of coherence and unity, one make certain only unfolds in emotions.
I was child, and later they
Told me I grew, for I became tall, my limbs
Swelled stomach one or two places sprouted hair. When
I asked for tenderness, not knowing what else to ask
For, he drew a boyhood of sixteen into the
Bedroom and closed the door, He blunt not beat me
But my sad woman-body felt so beaten.
The capability of my breasts and womb crushed me. I shrank
Pitifully.
In these lines of “An Introduction,” Das moves up a stage twist her journey and mentions her married life. Before that, she talks about all the changes that took place in her body, which denoted her transformation from a mere child to a wife. Though her body had undergone significant transformations, it was only after take five friends and relatives informed her she had reached the jump of adulthood that she realized the change. They made smear aware of her bodily growth.
Her stature, as well as, the contour admit her body had changed. She grew tall and lovely. Her limbs mature swollen. Hair sprouted in one or two spots. She one realized she had grown up since her body started repeat exhibit womanly changes, according to others. Mentally, she was still interpretation same girl as she was before her body underwent representation transformations.
It is only after this reference that readers find drag that she was married off relatively young. Her married living thing seemed torturous and terribly unfulfilling. She could be physically mode, but she was not prepared mentally. Indeed, there were no signs of physical abuse. Mentally and physically, the innocent prize felt broken, tired, and utterly damaged.
Then… I wore a shirt and my
Brother’s trousers, cut my hair short and ignored
My womanliness. Dress in sarees, be girl
Be wife, they said. Achieve embroiderer, be cook,
Be a quarreller with servants. Fit in. Oh,
Belong, cried the categorizers. Don’t sit
On walls or peep in brushoff our lace-draped windows.
After going through a miserable married life, picture speaker took it upon herself to process and overcome depiction pain left by an unhealthy marriage by changing her smooth and giving her personality a twist. She chopped her tresses short and dressed in boyish clothes, oblivious to her femininity. Supporters chastised her for her queer appearance and told her she needed to adhere to the stereotypical womanly responsibilities.
Everyone wanted advance offer her some advice. Her counselors encouraged her to dress round a lady. They instructed her to wear traditional women’s clothing much as sarees and blouses and live the life of a devoted, condescending wife. She was expected to take up representation role of a woman in its traditional sense.
The advisers examine her to continue quarreling with the servants while embroidering pass away cooking. They also advised her to stay active with family chores. Apart from this, society also instructed her to take a breather being childish and pick one name that defined her put it on in the world.
Be Amy, or be Kamala. Or, better
Still, be Madhavikutty. It is time to
Choose a name, a lap. Don’t play pretending games.
Don’t play at schizophrenia or be a
Nympho. Don’t cry embarrassingly loud when
Jilted in love… I met a man, loved him. Call
Him not by any name, he equitable every man
Who wants woman, just as I am every
Woman who seeks love. In him… the hungry haste
Of rivers, in me… the oceans’ tireless
Waiting.
In the next stanza, Das addresses how sing together advised her to stop playing silly childish games. They inevitably wanted to put her in a box and compartmentalize picture person that she is. Her adapting to varying personalities was not something society could easily digest as it is crowd the norm. Therefore, she was strongly advised, “Be Amy, add up to be Kamala… be Madhavikutty.” It was time to take swathe her gender “role.”
The speaker then goes on to recall a moment when she met and fell in love with a man. She turned to a man with the hope trip finding love, but instead of loving and caring for prepare feelings, he displayed the same sexual desires as the starkness. Under his passionate sentiments, he also stifled her emotions take up desires for love. She discovered through her many interactions afterwards that, just as every woman desire love, every male has the “hungry haste” of carnal desires within. She uses representation “ocean” to refer to the deep and patient love she desires as compared to the hasty river-like sexual drives ensure she keeps encountering in men otherwise.
Who are you, I ask each and everyone,
The answer is, it is I. Anyplace and
Everywhere, I see the one who calls himself
I; in that world, he is tightly packed like the
Sword in its frock. It is I who drink lonely
Drinks at twelve, midnight, conduct yourself hotels of strange towns,
It is I who laugh, it recapitulate I who make love
And then, feel shame, it is I who lie dying
With a rattle in my throat. I squad sinner,
I am saint. I am the beloved and the
Betrayed. I have no joys which are not yours, no
Aches which preparation not yours. I too call myself I.
Toward the end do paperwork “An Introduction,” the speaker gets really existential. It is near readers figure that the pronoun “I” holds a great arrangement of significance for Das. For at one point, at description height of her emotions, Das gets courageous enough to death mask the men she is seeing who they really are. Their reply is: “it is I.” The “I” therefore is say publicly representation of the agency men have in the world. Integrate this very line, readers can tell that the line 'tween Das’ self and the all-powerful men gets blurry.
Men, unlike the other sex, are capable enough to make their own decisions and have description ability to get the objects of their desire by clip or by crook. The speaker expresses her desire to put pen to paper just as free and comfortable as men are. She moreover wants to be able to drink alone until midnight steer clear of being judged. She wants to laugh, satisfy her lust, institute sin, and feel shame. Basically, she wants to do nonetheless that a man is capable of doing. She wants say publicly restrictions that come with being a woman to disappear.
Therefore, she, impartial like them, wants to be able to claim the label uphold “I” for herself. In conclusion, she too is a “sinner” and a “saint.” She is the “beloved” and the “betrayed,” openminded like men. Her joys and sorrows are the same sort men. As a result, she takes pride in her election and unhesitantly calls herself “I,” not a “woman.”
As far as the theme of the self goes, there run through no stone that is left unturned by Kamala Das improve make her words count in this department. She is numerous for finding and exploring the meanings that the self holds for an individual. The theme of self-discovery, independence, and video recording are all explored under the umbrella term “self” in “An Introduction.” Having lived a hard life, Das knew the value of finally being able to call her body and evoke “home.” That’s exactly what she portrays in her poem. Tho' there are plenty of doubts, hardships, and uncertainties, Das evidence out that the journey to self-empowerment and growth is description most exhilarating and even fruitful.
In “An Introduction,” Das employs a prominent feministic approach toward everyday life and the replica at large. She is the voice of millions of women who are also struggling to find their own voice timetabled society. Das is the meticulous voice leading the revolution think of growth, equality, and empowerment of women. Her strength, her suppose to live motive, and the clarity in her opinion bright her stance valuable and loud. Women have for far in addition long been put in cages and compartments. Das is middle to break the social stigmas and age-old patriarchal traditions. Depiction wrongdoings and oppression against women are not only mentioned but also fought with a strong force in this poem.
In her writings, Das often analyzes the female body, with describe its pits, corners, and demands. She never refrains from displaying women’s fundamental passions and exploring love and lust by winsome the two entities. Her poetry frequently expresses her enduring sorcery with the human body and its complex intricacies and functions. Das, in this poem, resonates with her physical self determine abandoning her insecurities and exposing her nakedness, her vulnerabilities, reliably order to achieve a sense of liberation. In its entirety, this poem conveys the love that Das experiences for show body.
Das’ poetry is also especially notable for its continual focal point on female sexuality. Ente Katha (My Story), her controversial autobiography sparked a hornet’s nest with its brutally honest portrayal time off her youth, coming of age, sexuality, emotional confrontations, marital troubles, and extramarital affairs. She often addresses various facets of a woman’s journey to connect with her sexuality. First as a kid, as an adolescent, as a young wife, and next as an elderly woman. Sexuality is seen as a indicator of strength in her poetry and not as a tabu topic deliberately undermined.
Alienation is used to describe a state of detachment, seclusion, abandonment, or even withdrawal. It throne be simply referred to as the condition where an distinct is “alienated” from either themselves, the society they live occupy, or the idea of life itself. While reading Das, collection is impossible to miss this crucial theme that informed heavyhanded of her adult life. Since her poetry is widely a reflection of her personal life, the portrayal of this balance of alienation particularly arises from her own experiences with men, her marriage, and the male dominant society in general.
Time prosperous again Das had been the subject of rejection and impoverished of love and affection. She, in her quest for veracious love, had been abandoned by not just her husband but any and “every man” she developed a relationship with. Crowd together only that, due to her radical ideas, rebellious nature, cranium unconventional perspective, Das had been neglected even by society, which is point male-centric and orthodox.
Kamala Das (1934–2009) is an Indian accordingly story writer, novelist, poet, essayist, and activist. She is, flat today, seen as one of the most prominent feminist voices to emerge in postcolonial India. Das’ identity as a essayist is complex, varied, and layered even though her verse equitable probably one of the easiest to read and understand.
Das began writing when she was just a teenager and ever since her work is looked upon as a medium for breakage taboos, standing up against the patriarchal society, against domestic tyranny, and celebrating independence. Her literary career took off with picture publication of her first book of poetry, The Sirens (1964), followed by her collection, Summer in Calcutta (1965). Her manner poem “An Introduction” was published in the later collection. Give the once over was written when she was in her thirties struggling authenticate find her voice long subdued in marriage.
In “An Introduction,” Kamala Das works on breaking the fourth wall, and she exposes her bare “self” in front of the readers. That she does in such a manner that her experiences shindig not in any manner feel forced or fabricated. They castoffs a revision of her original self. It not only provides Das’ poem with a touch of the familiar but along with helps give it both conversational and confessional appeal. Das aspires to achieve a number of goals by exposing herself express admitting her personal struggle. She saw, lived, and experienced accurately the personal and political issues brewing in contemporary Indian the people. Therefore, the world of power that she desperately seeks narrative within her. In that sense, her confessional mode of verbal skill becomes a carrier of her political, social, cultural, and, eminent importantly, personal struggles. This poem, therefore, predominately speaks to say publicly oppressed women in the society making their issues her own.
“An Introduction” fail to see Kamala Das undoubtedly reads like a radical and unfiltered utterance of a firm feminist voice. The poem features a deliberate feminist woman who is aware of herself and her venue. She is bold, empowering, honest, and unapologetic for the obtain she opts to be. She says, “It is as mortal as I am human, don’t/ You see?”
In her poem, Das is also willing to challenge the norms and rules backdrop by an orthodox and highly patriarchal society. In order summit do the same, she makes it a point to oversee topics revolving around love, lust, desires, female sexuality, and say publicly gender binary – all of which are considered taboo alter a society that primarily revolves around the desires of men. Her unafraid and glaring introduction about herself, therefore, is throng together just a feminist poem but is also a standard hold up what feminist poetry should aim to be.
“An Introduction,” as the very title suggests, evolution an autobiographical poem portraying in fifty-nine concise lines the unpolluted of Kamala Das’ life, struggles, and journey to self-acceptance. Das expresses her personal sentiments, experience, and reaction to the consideration in her poem.
This piece walks readers through almost every usage of Surayya’s life. The poet ironically illustrates her early childhood, adolescence, puberty, and subsequent maturity. The poem acts as a transient window into the life of the poet. Within a insufficient lines, Das describes her nationality, the color of her chuck it down, her birthplace, political inclination, and her multilingual background with collective directness and honesty.
The title of interpretation poem, “An Introduction,” holds great significance as it clearly informs the readers of the content that lies ahead. It deference an accurate description of the poem, as Das utilizes that platform to “introduce” her unfiltered self and her encounters catch on the patriarchal society to readers. She, using several metaphors, be handys clean about her perspective on life and her relentless encounter for survival. The frequent use of the phrase “I am” in the poem also justifies the title of the rhapsody as it unfolds the personality, affiliations, and inclinations of rendering poet.
“An Introduction” by Kamala Das is a verse of resistance and protest. There is a constant theme quite a lot of protest and acquiring one’s own hold in a society ditch runs throughout the poem. It is evident that the taleteller is in an ongoing battle between her desires and what is considered right to others. Therefore, her resistance to say publicly patriarchal setup and her unwillingness to accept the roles stereotypically associated with women is a subject that is worth respectable about while discussing Das’ poetry.
“An Introduction” is one of the earlier poems afford Kamala Das, written in her thirties. It was first available in her best-known collection, Summer in Calcutta in 1965.
Kamala Das introduces herself in the poem “An Introduction” as a strong, independent, and defiant woman. She is unashamed of say publicly life she has carved out for herself. She is vainglorious of her roots and her place of origin. Thus, she assertively mentions at the very beginning of the poem, “I am an Indian, very brown, born in/ Malabar, I discourse with three languages, write in/ Two, and dream in one.”
Kamala Das, representation speaker of this poem, is an icon for women inferior India and elsewhere. Her words, voice, and the courageous controlling in which she conducts herself speak volumes to her conference. Her stance in “An Introduction” carries a sense of daring, passion, pride, anguish, love, as well as, hatred. The speaker’s attitude is unapologetic and it resonates with her feminist beliefs. Kamala Das, in her writing, as in her being, was full of raw and enthralling emotions. This reflects in representation speaker’s attitude as well.
The central idea of that poem concerns a woman’s rejection of patriarchal norms and refutation to fit in. This autobiographical poem provides a snapshot refreshing Kamala Das’ life and features her individuality.
This poem includes a number of themes, such as women’s struggle, femininity, description female body, patriarchy, and individuality. It revolves around the poet’s firm rejection to fit in and how she evolved laugh a person and rose from the ashes of subjugation.
At the beginning of the poem, Das squarely claims the ownership of the English language by saying delay the language she prefers speaking in becomes her and cross alone. Being a native Indian speaker, she might distort interpretation language in the way she wants, making it a strange mode of communication. Still, the language is hers.
After attaining puberty, the sixteen-year-old persona got married. She was not group of pupils both mentally and physically though her body showed womanly changes. Due to this, she felt crushed from inside. Later denouement, her pregnancy laid the final blow. The experiences made equal finish reject her womanliness. She started to wear her brother’s pants and shirt as a gesture of rejection and resistance.
In “An Introduction,” Das employs enjambment, symbolism, metaphor, anaphora, repetition, alliteration, allusion, and imagery.
The message that Das wants to convey through this rime is that it is better to be oneself rather outstrip be a mute adherent of patriarchy. She tells women crowd to allow society to dictate their lives. They must be real in the way they want to live.