CONFESSIONS IN THE POEMS OF KAMALA DAS AND TARA PATEL: A

COMPARATIVE STUDY

Dr. S.K. Kavitha

Guest Lecturer

Department of English

Thiruvalluvar Government Arts College

Rasipuram

Comparative Literature studies turn out to be the widely accepted academic discipline

because comparative literature offers an opening to learn the creative and innovative literature in

all its forms. It also endeavours to blend linguistic boundaries and encourages cultural co-

ordination. In Comparative Literature: A Critical Introduction, Susan Bassnett defines

comparative literature as the “…study of literary texts across cultures, that it is interdisciplinary

and that it is concerned with patterns of connection in literatures across both time and space.”(1)

Though lack of clear cut identity and agreed methodological parameters stand as a hurdle in

comparative literature studies, the emergence of new comparative journals, new chairs in

comparative literature and a remarkable increase in publications allure the attention of many

research scholars all over the world. This paper entitled “Confessions in the Poems of Kamala Das

and Tara Patel: A Comparative Study” aims to bring to lime light the confessional ideas in the

poems of Kamala Das and Tara Patel.

Poetry is a celebrated art form in which human language is used as a medium to

incorporate thoughts and emotions. As poetry elevates the thoughts of the reader, it can be

considered as the highest art form. Poetry gifts an opportunity for the Indian women poets writing

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in English to deal with variety of themes. But the theme of confession is the preferred by them as it

renders a golden chance to bring to lime light what is experienced in their personal life. Though

they belong to diverse background they have often raised their voice against social and cultural

conventions that limit their liberty. Toru Dutt, Sarojini Naidu, Kamala Das, Mamta Kalia, Tara

Patel, Gauri Deshpande, Suniti Namjoshi, and many have added a lot to the growth and progress

of Indian English poetry. The language of the modern Indian women poets is simple, brief,

graceful and alluring. They write consciously as women and the confessional and autobiographical

note, frank, candid, bold and realistic expressions elevate their standard on par with the writers in

English.

Though women in India are privileged enough to occupy high and honourable places of

power, the society is yet to free Indian women. Efforts have been taken to liberate women from the

evil practices, the pace is still slow. In Feminism and Post Feminism: The Context of Modern

Indian Women Poets Writing In English Kanwar Dinesh Singh says, “ Besides several restraints of

gender, tradition and orthodoxy of religion, Indian women today are the victims of crimes like

dowry killing, physical and mental torture, sexual harassment, rape, kidnapping and abduction,

trafficking etc., and are, sometimes forced to commit suicide.”(46) Hence the Indian English

women poets confess their distress profoundly than their male counterparts in their poetry.

Confessional style of writing emerged in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s and is associated

with Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Sexton. The poetry of mid and late twentieth century

deals with the private experiences of the poet and feelings about trauma, despair and depression.

Though the poems are autobiographical, the confessional poets are not just recording their

emotions on paper. Their way of expression and frankness has been ground breaking. They gather

courage to express what is so far hidden or unexpressed. In Indian English poetry Kamala Das

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and Tara Patel occupy an important place and their outspokenness wide-open yet another gate of

liberation for feministic writing.

The poems of Kamala Das occupy a notable place and her poems are noted for a distinctive

voice of selfhood and individuality. Kamala Das one of the most significant voices of modern

Indian English poetry is written in confessional style. She writes about herself in confessional

mode like Robert Lowell, Theodore Roethke, Anne Sexton, John Berryman, and Sylvia Plath. She

has introduced a unique style in Indian English poetry. Kamala Das is quite open and frank about

her feelings and declares, “I too call myself I”. K. Dinesh Singh points out: “The modernism and

feminism of Indian women poets begin with Kamala Das who broke away with the romantic-

idealist tradition of the pre-independence women poets and rendered a realistic and concrete

portrayal of life-experience, particularly in the ambit of man- woman relationship (58).

The depressed mood and the tortures of the ever itching problems are the reason for the

choice writing confessional poems. Confessional poetry is often called “the poetry of suffering”

(130) as reviewed by Rosenthal in his The New Poets: American and British Poetry since World

War II.

The mental agony and suffering have instigated Kamala Das and Tara Patel to find a

medium of expression which turns out to be their poems. The note of suppressed anger and their

protests are quite alluring and these qualities have fetched them a respectable place in Indian

writing in English. In almost all the poems of Kamala Das and Tara Patel there is a note of

suppressed anger, which is but quite natural. Their poems are subjective and hence

autobiographical in nature. Their poems compel the readers to peep into their psyche on the one

hand and multifaceted nature of the feminine sensibility on the other.

The misery of woman, according to Kamala Das, is as aged as the hills and has been

experienced across time by her comrades. Kamala Das hopes that all the scars in her mind can be

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get rid off through her poems and she thinks that her poems offer her a healing effect. Kamala Das

declares in one of her Anamalai Poems:

If I had not learnt to write, how would

I have written away my loneliness

or grief? Garnering them within, my heart

would have grown heavy as a vault, one that

only death might open; a release then

I would not be able to feel or sense...

Love and sexual longing are the recurring themes of Kamala Das and her poetry are much

more realistic, sensible, practical, frank, and bold. As a confessional poet, Kamala Das, honestly

and bravely articulates her inner self. The sexual frankness of Kamala Das shocks the readers and

the general readers are amused by her outspoken attitude. She expresses her personal experiences

without any inhibition which are generally forbidden in a patriarchal society. Kamala Das trusts in

absolute immersion in love and thus stresses profound self-abandonment. In her poem “The

Looking Glass” her choice of words shocks the readers as they have never exposed to such a frank

mode of self-expression. Her confessional quality agitates the readers and lingers in their mind for

a long time. It takes time for any reader to accept and understand her visions.

Gift him all that makes you woman, the scent of

Long hair, the musk of sweat between the breasts

The warm shock of menstrual blood, and all your Endless female hungers

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Though she the believer of complete surrenders in love she complains against the mere desire

without any feelings of intimacy or understand from her male counterpart. The rejection of an

ideal union leads to discontent and disappointment in her life. She believes in liberating the self

from the chains of life.

Tara Patel joins hand with Kamala Das to raise the voice against the ideas that disturb her

equilibrium. Tara Patel’s longing for love and companionship transform her as a confessional poet

like Kamala Das. Her poem entitled “Mother” stands for the pathetic plight of woman. Her

thoughts and right selection of words convey her anger and pain to the readers. Kamala Das

vibrates her readers through her frankness and openness where as Tara Patel plainly discusses

about the selection of her husband by her parents. She openly admits that she was married at the

right time to a wrong person. She mocks at the traditional way of married life in Indian society

where marriage is considered as an instrument for reproduction.

You married at the right time

If not to the right man.

You were the lucky daughter

Who went abroad, ...

I dare say your discovery of sex was

not wonderful.

After the mandatory children

And regret over four daughters,

You got your son.

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 Sex must have ended with your son.

With relief you turned to Ram

And Krishna –Fancying yourself to be

Sita and Radha...(9)

Tara Patel struggles to digest the pattern of life destined on most of the ladies in India

including her. Tara Patel’s poem, “Woman” narrates how she is subjugated for being born a

woman and sadly admits her passionate desire for love, concern and understanding, as she is

distressed and upset by the indifference and absolute insensitivity. Her influential poem “Women”

describes a dual, sadist approach, of torment and self flagellation and an escape that simply

strengthens the yearning to be cured and cared for. Her poem asserts and demands attention as

woman in exploration for self, recognition. It compels a breathing space by eliminating the limits.

The opening lines in “Woman” communicate the common and prevailing condition of majority of

women folk.

A woman’s life is a reaction to the crack of a whip.

She learns to dodge it as it whistles around her

But sometimes, it lands on the thick, distorted

welt of her memory…(9)

She recollects her experience in the past. Here the ‘whip’ stands as the symbol of power

and authority and the suffering of women in the hands of patriarchy. Women are beaten and their

mental stress finds an outlet as poems. Tara Patel discusses in detail about how women are

cornered, instructed in a male-dominated world in her poem “Woman”. She concludes that the life

of women is a long saga of stress. The prolonged pain results in some sort rebellion.

Then in rebellion she turned her face

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 to the whip, till pain became a river in flood

wreaking vengeance.(9)

The same protracted distress was experienced by Kamala Das too which was confessed by

her in the fictional autobiography My Story. My Story discloses that her poems are in fact an

intense study of her personal distress and trials that she experienced in an insensitive, chiefly

patriarchal world. She not only confesses but as well express her female identity. Her poetry

demands the readers to understand her pathos which is yet to be recognized. However, her poems

are the dynamic articulation of her female self. Her feminine self is a unique blend of the want for

domestic security and the yearning for freedom, liberty and individuality. In her poem “A

Relationship” she painfully unveils a world which is so far hidden from the eyes of the world.

That I shall find my rest, my sleep, my peace,

And even death nowhere else but here in

My betrayer’s arms.

Tara Patel is preoccupied by the issue of female egoism and self. She discards the male

power and authority with the intention of establishing liberty and equality with men. In her poem

“Woman” Tara Patel writes:

It is easy to dismiss All men as bastards

Perhaps I need to do a course in male psychology

With extensive practicals. (9)

Kamala Das uses the word ‘betrayer’ and Tara Patel ‘bastards’ to articulate their status in

the tradition bound Indian family. They break the norms by translating all their experiences in the

form of poems. Tara Patel projects all the hurdles that stand as a hindrance in the path to the

progress of women folk in general. She openly proclaims her right and voice against exploitation

by pointing out the clear line of demarcation between the women of previous generation and

present generation. Some lines of her poems asset her thirst for individuality.

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 “I cannot live like you, mother/maintain the status quo …

I daresay your discovery of sex/was not wonderful …

… Love is an illusion I’ve lived /with for so long, mother/although you never

inspired it.” (9)

The female self in Kamala Das tries to seek solace in the poetic self. The sole reason for

this escapism is to prove her individuality and self. The women in Kamala Das and Tara Patel

appear to struggle between passion and custom. Their exploration of true love and their ambition

to break the shackles of the traditional norms well expressed in their poems. In the poem “An

Introduction” Kamala Das reveals her painful distress, disillusionment and frustration and rebels

against the imposed passive role in a tradition bound Indian society where changes are introduced

at a very slow pace.

Dress in sarees, be girl

Be wife, they said. Be embroiderer, be cook,

Be a quarreller with servants. Fit in. Oh,

Belong, cried the categorizers. Don't sit

On walls or peep in through our lace-draped windows.

Be Amy, or be Kamala. Or, better

Still, be Madhavikutty.

Kamala Das shows how the tradition bound Indian society tries to tune her as per its wish which is

hated by her like venom. She shuns all the norms and tries to get liberated from all the things that

stand as hurdles before her path. She tries to lead as per the instruction of her mind and heart and

not as per the dictation of the society.

…I wore a shirt and my

Brother’s trousers, cut my hair short and ignored

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 My womanliness.

Her deep disgust for dress code is because of the limitation imposed as she is a woman. She

becomes restless and reveals a deep disgust for her own body. To rise above bodily limitations at

times makes her to seek escape from the world of reality and she has made it possible through her

poems.

…I met a man, loved him. Call

Him not by any name, he is every man

Who wants a woman, just as I am every

Woman who seeks love. In him …the hungry taste

Of rivers in me…the oceans’ tireless Waiting....

The suppressed feelings find a vent through poems and many women poets from India

chose confessional poetry as the right medium to express their ideas, thoughts, dissatisfaction and

distress with the hope of inviting positive changes. Kamala Das write about her sexual needs and

longing for love, mutual respect, infidelity, alienation, motherhood, assertion of identity and so on.

In Tara Patel’s writings there is a passionate negative response of the old conventional

womanhood. “I cannot live like you, mother, /Maintain the status quo. /I’ve moved out of square

one.” (9) According to Uma Ram Tara Patel’s image is “the new Indian woman’s predicament

rises from the fact that she has moved out of square one” (168). Here ‘square one’ indicates the

existence of her family tree, that is, the home of her mother. Tara Patel through her poetry not only

conveys her personal outlook but also she projects herself as a confessional feminist who demands

for a distinguished place of reputation and esteem. Tara Patel explains how women are forced to

take up the role of a convict, yogi or refugee though she detests such roles. The patriarchal society

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entrusts such roles on her for centuries and expects her to fulfill her role without a protest or

complaint. The main concept of Tara Patel’s “Women” is given in the following lines:

She ran away to live as an escaped convict,

Or a refugee,

Or a yogi in the wilderness of civilization.

Beneath the thick, distorted welt of her memory,

She dreams.(9)

Both Kamala Das and Tara Patel understand that the longing of women stays with them for

a long time and their unfulfilled wishes stagnate in their mind. Such stagnated ideas in the mind of

the poets have inspired them to put down the pathetic plight in the poems. In the poem, “Request”

Tara Patel puts all her expectations in the form of poem with the hope that changes may be

permitted in future. Tara Patel’s presentation of sense of traversing is a wider trajectory of the

cultural diversity. Her desire to be loved and her longing for companionship are well-expressed.

But because I’m pining for an old pleasure,

Have lunch with me one of these days.

I miss you most when I’m eating alone.

A man should look up a woman sometimes

for old times’ sake. (21)

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Her request for simple things in married life indicates that men do not know to lead a

compassionate and healthy life style with their life partner. At times they are deviated by society.

They are taught from their childhood days that men are more powerful and stronger than females.

So they fail to get satisfaction with the company of their life partners and letting the women to

long for the basic needs in life. The woman in the poem “Request” likes the husband to dine with

her and she is ready to meet the economical demands after dining.

Sometimes for old times sake

You should look me up.

Have lunch with me, I’ll pay the bill…(21)

Tara Patel realizes in the end that the beauty needs to be retained and youth should stay

with the women to win the love of a husband. Her realization teaches her that all her emotions will

be left without any recognition.

It is not your lack of love which distresses

me anymore.

I’m no longer obsessed with a blind emotion

Which promises everything and nothing?

You have to be young forever to be in love. (21)

The confessional poems are not optimistic in their outlook. They neither bestow any

positive thought nor any hope for a better future. The confessional poems of Kamala Das and Tara

Patel end without any expectation but with a clear idea. They are neither ready for a negotiation

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nor to accept what is destined on them. They were agitated in the beginning and they have used

poetry as a vehicle to find a solution to their problems. They understand that it is impossible to

produce a clap with a single hand. Tara Patel concludes, “It is not your lack of love which

distresses/ me anymore” and Kamala Das concludes, I wore a shirt and my/ Brother’s trousers, cut

my hair short and ignored/ My womanliness.

The comparative study of their works ignites the minds of their readers to understand the

condition of married women in Indian society with the idea of initiating some needed changes. The

poets hope that such changes will illuminate the minds of millions of their comrades who do not

even to find a vehicle of expression to convey their life style. Kamala Das and Tara Patel are not

considered as sadists or pessimists. They break away from conventional style through their

confessional poems to establish their self. In a way their approach is optimistic. They are

successful in their goal of establishing their identity through their poems. They hope to spread a

positive vibration among their female counterparts and also awareness to the society. They

demand the society to render an ear to their needs. The results of their effort may be time

consuming but as Shelley says, “If winter comes can spring be far behind”.

WORKS CITED

Bassnett, Susan. Comparative Literature: A Critical Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993. Print.

Dinesh Singh, Kanwar. Feminism and Post Feminism: The Context of Modern Indian Women
Poets

Writing In English. Sarup & Sons: New Delhi.2006. Print.

Patel, Tara. Single Woman, University of Michigan, Rupa & Company, 1991. Print.

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Rosenthal, M.L. The New Poets: American and British Poetry Since World War II. New York:
Oxford
University Press, 1967. Print.

Ram, Uma. “Indian New Woman Poet in English: Restless Quest for a New Home!” A. A. Khan
(ed.)
Changing Faces of New Woman: Indian Writing in English. New Delhi: Adyayan
Publishers & Distributors, 2012. Print.

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/relationship-26/

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-looking-glass-11/

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/an-introduction-2/

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