Kamala Das-

Kamla Das is one of the revolutionary poetess of Indo English literature. Har poetry is characterized by extreme sincerity and integrity. Kamla Das born in 1934 at Malabar in Kerala, she was educated both in Kerala and Calcutta.She inherited her love for literature from her mother and great grandmother, both literary figures in Malayalam literature. Before coming into to prominence by writing in English, Kamla Das had already earned in Malayalam literary circle. Married at the age of just 15 years, she could never come out of the trauma of early sexual experience with her much older husband despite his being kind and live liberal to her.

Poetry--

'Summer in Calcutta','The Descendants','The old Playhouse and other poems ','Collected poems, Volume 1(1984). etc.

Introduction--

Kamala Das's poetry as many hues and shades . love in all its variegated aspects in one of the major things which are centred round the man - woman relationship. In fact , the whole corpus of Kamla Das's poetry is based on man -woman relationship which is essentially a love relationship. She is one such poet who recognises her orbit especially in regard to creating emotional analogues drawing her imagery from the vast reservoir of personal memories.

Love the core of Kamala das's poetry --

If one studies carefull the poems prescribed in the course and also other poems of Kamla Das, one finds that love emerges as the pivotal point round which all her poetry revolves. But this concept of love is not that simple as is understood by the term. Love acquires a complex and multi- dimensional human experience in her poetry. It is a physical, emotional and also a transcent feeling which surpasses these dimensions to approach the spiritual.

Love - lust - frustration syndrome--

Kamla das's poetry is essentially Love poetry, love between men and women. Man woman relationship in her poetry is depicted on different levels: love, lust, physical nearness and frustration in love. She has surprised the critics with her Frank depiction of man - women love - lust relationship. Her poetry is replete with shocking about love , marriage and sex.

Nostalgia in confessional poetry --

Confessional poetry drives its tone from the confilict between the awareness of the present melody and the inexorable urge to seek  joy through reminiscences of past experiences. This aspect of Kamala Das'  poetry is easily discernible in poems like 'My grandmother's house' and 'A hot noon in Malabar'. 

Kamala Das' poetry both intensely personal and universal--

Kamala Das' poetry is all autobiographical. It is rooted in the personal experiences of the poet. From the personal and particular . She rises to the general and universal. She transforms her intense personal experience into a general truth. Her own feminine sufferings and humiliations become  symbolic of the sufferings and humiliations of sources of other woman of the world. Here in lies Kamala Das greatness and age an artist she is both intensely personal and universal .

The Freaks - expression of poet's disgust against physical lust --

Kamala Das' early marriage with a " much older then her " husband resulted in her aversion to sex. Her husband though gentle and caring , was unable to understand her emotional needs. As a writer in her autobiography :' my husband was immersed in her office work , and after work there was the dinner , followed by sex. ' The poem ' The fracks , exhibits her disgust against physical lust . Man can excite only physical lust and the heart remains empty cistern . Without emotional fulfillment the poet feels life to be " a living without life "

Nalapat house - the symbol of poetess identity --

Nalapat house is not only a family house with sweet memories attached to it but it is a symbol of her identity. It was the place which equipped her with the confidence of security and love. The spirit of the the grandmother's great personality and loving heart pervaded the whole house . In the husband's house she is yearning for love. Like a bigger she has to beg for love. Like a beggar she has to beg for love at strangers ' doors. Though the grandmother is dead and the house is desolate , its memories are the only hope to sustain her. That is why she wishes to bring an ' armful of darkness ' and keep it near her bedroom door as a watch dog, so that whatever love is in life may not slip away. 

Contrast between past innocence and present torture --

The poem contrasts The poet's present and the past . Present age is in in no way worth living but the past was inspiring and its memory is worth retaining . Hot  noon at her husband's house away from her own house in Malabar is terrible,  but noon at Malabar in poet's childhood is worth relishing in spit of sultry heat and heat - tortured common folk and strangers to Malabar. The reason of this contrast is that life at Malabar was a life of innocence while the the life at her husband's house is life of experience of the the realities of laveless life.

Quest for emotional fulfillment--

Love in Kamala Das's poetry is not limited to satisfaction of physical needs only, rather physical relationship is used to achieve emotional fulfillment. Thus love in her poetry transcends the mere physical. It incorporates as an indispensable ingredient the emotional security in her relationship with her husband but gets only lust. She turns to other remains unrealised. Quest for love, or rather the failur to find emotional fulfillment through love is the central theme of Kamala Das poetry and her love poetry is rooted in her own personal experiences. It is an out pouring of her own loneliness disillusionment and sense of frustration.