Kamala Das and Her Poetry

This book traces the origin and growth of Kamala Das as a poet through successive stages. Mrs. Das, who received no formal education, no pompous University degree, stands on her own merit and is placed on the pinnacle of reputation and distinction among Indo-English poets of today. Her scintillating verse has that irresistible force and tilting rhythm in it which captures the reader’s attention immediately. The reader often feels that he is in the presence of a writer who is highly gifted and skilful, largely emotional and subjective, and who is ever celebrating the charms of the body and the hungers of the sex, without getting him bored even for a while. The poetess admirably comes through the dictum of William Wordsworth when the pronounced that poetry is ‘the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.’ The present book endeavours to combine biography and criticism and makes a critical-analytical study of Mrs. Das’s verse to date. It is not so much a chronological survey of her literary output as an investigation into the aspects of her poetry. There are already books, articles and reviews on Kamala Das, but this one is unique in evaluating her poetic worth in the light of her work and in ascertaining her position amongst contemporary indo-English poets. This may well claim to be the first of its kind in making a pointed approach to diverse subjects of her verse, to her being a ‘confessional’ poet, to her conspicuous ‘tragic vision’ of art, and in critically examining some of her significant poems an din undertaking an appraisal of her novel, Alphabet of Lust (1976), and of her prose works. The book would definitely prove an invaluable asset to the students and teachers of English literature.