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The poem "An Introduction" is written by Kamala Das, an eminent Indian poet, known for writing confessional poetry. The poem, as her style, is confessional in nature, sharing her personal and intimate thoughts. Explanation The narrator admits her lack of interest in politics, but she does know that Jawaharlal Nehru was the first prime minister of the nation, and the subsequent power political figures who remained in power.  She states her nationality as Indian and flaunts her brown skin. Her place of birth is Malabar, that covers India's south-western coast. She has command over three languages, i.e. Malayalam, English and Hindi, out of which she writes in two (Malayalam & English), and one in which she dreams i.e. Malayalam because that was her mother tongue. People including her friends, cousins, and critics advised her to not write in English because it's not her mother-tongue. She found such suggestion unwanted and wanted to be left alone with her choice. She ...

The narrator, a woman, talks about men. She reveals that it is easy to receive men's love, a woman just has to be candid about her sexual needs. A man is driven by carnal desire, so she will certainly get his attention.  She is aware of the man's need to show his masculinity, so she advises women to stand with her man before the mirror. He will admire his own stronger physical figure as compared to the woman who looks "softer, younger, lovelier". Here the poetess knows that men play into the female's recognition of his masculinity. Further, she says that the woman should openly show her admiration of the male body. Also, she instructs women to pay attention to his body parts as he walks with shyness on the bathroom floor. She can see his red eyes while under the shower and how he drops his towel and urinates in a "jerky way". She appreciates his male features which separates him from her. She admits her sexuality and "gift" her lover all pleasu...

Kamala Das's poetry reveals her personal thoughts and anguish of her failed married life. She employs various imageries and symbols in her poetry which usually depicts confessional subjects. The symbols used in the poetry are common things meant to describe the personal meaning she attached to them. In her poem "The Sunshine Cat", her mental and physical breakdown is depicted with her words "they let her slide from pegs of sanity" which describes their insensitive attitude towards her. The imagery of building "walls with tears" shows the defensive mechanism and her distrust of men. The depiction of the male body is shown in the lines : "clinging to their chests where  New hair sprouted like great-winged moths, burrowing her  face into their smells" The poem "The Freaks" too depicts the image of the lustful male body which regards as an agent of corruption. Her husband is hungry for carnal thirst and this excessive desire makes ...

Confessional poetry is a style of poetry which deals with the personal and intimate thoughts, mental distress and individual experience. Often the themes presented in this type of poetry has elements of taboo issues. The term confessional was first used by M.L Rosenthal in a review of Robert Lowell's Life Studies entitled "Poetry as Confession". Other notable confessional poets include Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton and Robert Lowell. In order to publish such poetry, a great amount of courage and mental resilience is needed. The structure of the confessional poems are usually the same; they don't have any defined Rhyming scheme and are written in Free verse. This may be due to the fact that the poet outpour his/her predicaments and private thoughts on the paper and to make it more coherent is the last thought (s)he has. Kamala Das was one of the prominent poets whose poetry's main feature is confessional and autobiographical. In her autobiography "My Story...

Kamala Das's poem "The Sunshine Cat" has both personal and universal elements reflected in it. Personal elements Like most of Kamala Das poetry, the poem sunshine cat is also a personal poem. the poem presents the downfall of the poetess who faced betrayal from both her alleged better-half and the lovers who used her to satisfy their carnal hunger. They refused to love her saying that it's not in their nature to love. After continuous failure in getting love, she was confined to a room by her husband whom she calls her a ruthless watcher. In the end, she ended up in the state of mental breakdown. Universal elements In addition to the poem being a personal poem, the poem reflects some universal happenings: The poem gives the real picture of the society where women have to live at the mercy of male members We also get a glimpse of mentality of some men who are keen to use a woman, usually an easy prey to quench their demonic thirst. The poem depicts the u...

The poem "A Hot Noon In Malabar" written by Kamala Das is nostalgic in nature. Like most of her poems, the poem is personal. The poem narrates the ordeal of the poetess who misses her days at her grandmother's home in Malabar where she spent the best of her days. She describes the bustle of Malabar during noontime, the beggars roam there and ask for alms in their "whining voices". The fortune-teller who has his parrots in a cage and his old fortune-cards with him. The "brown Kurava girls" examine the palm of people and enlighten them about their self and future events ahead of them. Besides it, their group sing their cultural songs. There are some bangle-sellers who sell red, green and blue bangles on the dusty roadside. Their heels are cracked due to continuous travelling. When they pass-by narrator's house and climb her porch, their cracked heels make unusual noise which seems strange to the narrator. During these noons, strangers walking th...

My Mother At Sixty-Six The poem "My Mother At Sixty-Six" is written by Kamala Das, one of the foremost Modern Indian English writer who was famous for her frank depiction of women sexuality. Most of her poems are personal. The poem describes the narrator's concern towards her mother who has grown old which can also be seen from her physical features. It also depicts the complexity of the narrator digesting the fact of her mother getting too old and understandably, she doesn't convey her fear to her. The poem begins with the narrator driving from her parents home to Cochin (present-day Kochi). Her mother accompanies her. While travelling, she notices that her mother was drowsy, her face looks like of a "corpse" lacking vigour. The narrator sadly realises that her mother has aged older as her facial features show unambiguously. But then she chooses to ignore the painful thought, perhaps to spare her own mind. She tries to look out at youthful beings suc...

In the poem "My Grandmother's House", Kamala Das reminisces about her grandmother's house when she was alive. And after death, the house loses its charm and now it seems dead. She describes the house as not a cheerful place where "snakes moved among books" but her grandmother brought love into her gloomy life. She was reluctant to read at her young age but on seeing snakes among books in the house, she dreads. Now long after the demise of her grandmother, she often thinks of visiting the place. But when she looks at it now, it doesn't look like before, perhaps her grandmother was the root of the house after whom the whole plant couldn't survive. The atmosphere around the house is not the same as when her grandmother was alive, the air seems "frozen" to the narrator. She personifies the windows as "blind", for the interior are not visible from the outside of the window. She found the very darkness of that house holy and intends...

The poem written by Kamala Das, depicts the intimate moments of the narrator shared with her husband. It is a personal poem of the poetess which also shows the vacuum of emotional warmth between them, although the husband seems to be unaware of absence of love. Like her another poem The Sunshine Cat , there is a lack of chemistry between her husband and her. She doesn't feel the love between them and only acts as a formality to engage in sex to gratify her husband. Her husband's only contention is with his sexual desire to be fulfilled and he has no other thought of knowing what she really yearns. He may be deluded by the narrator acting as enjoying sex, she is aware of his only contention with sex and she doesn't deny him. She doesn't associate with her husband and calls him "man with Nimble finger-tips". She has no expectations from him other than fulfilling her sexual needs but she wants something else which she knows that he can never grant her, emotiona...

The poem "The Sunshine Cat" penned by Kamala Das, one of the prominent modern Indian poetess. She wrote in both English and Malayalam language. Her works have been translated into numerous languages such as French, Spanish, Russian, German and Japanese. She is also known for her open depiction of female sexuality through her works particularly her autobiography, My Story. "the husband who neither loved nor Used her, but was a ruthless watcher," In the poem, the readers are introduced to the grief and agony of the narrator. She develops distrust against the people  whom she turned to for help, but all they did was to use her in the context of "being kind to her". Her husband who was indifferent to her feelings, she admits he didn't abuse her but he totally ignored her need for emotional support. He was merely a "watcher" and seems to work out the thing called marriage by continuing the status quo. "I do not love, I cannot love, it is not...