Introduction to the Poem:
The poem entitled "In Love" presents brief account of a sexual experience which created a kind of dilemma for her. It was published in 1965 in Kamala Das’ first volume of poems entitled “Summer in Calcutta”. The poetess observes that sterile love gives only frustrations and disillusionments to the woman. She craves for love but her explorations of love end in sex and lust. It is a confessional and autobiographical poem. It reveals the working of feminine consciousness. In this poem, the poetess finds out that love is the only pastime that involves the soul. But in this harsh, sterile and male - dominated world love is defiled in sex, and sex results in disgust, frustration and disillusionment.
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| Kamala Das’ Poem, In Love, Summary and Critical Appreciation |
Summary of the Poem:
The poetess was extremely hungry of true love. She had wandered from the right path in search of true love, but her strivings for love proved to be futile. In order to fulfil her yearnings for love, she developed physical relationship with many persons, but every person with whom she came in contact, exploited her physically. None of them showed true feelings of love for her. In fact, she had bitter experience of life. She was so much involved in barren and sterile sex that she could not forget her bitter experience of life. When she saw the burning sun in the sky, she, at once recalled the company of one of her lovers. She had been the sex partner of one of her lovers for a long time. The burning sun reminded her the lover's repulsive mouth. The lover had sun stained cheeks which symbolised the heat generated by sheer lustfulness and sexuality. She was full of hatred to remember his ugly face. When he lay in the bed with her to satisfy his physical hunger, his cheeks turned brown with extreme lustfulness. Under sheer lustfulness, he showed his great eagerness to embrace her body in his arms. So he stretched his mouth and weak limbs to her like carnivorous plants. He wanted to devour her body lustfully. After taking the poetess in his tight grip, the lover remained busy in his sexual acts. He kissed her and soothed the tender parts of her body. She unwillingly surrendered before his sexual acts. Although she disliked him, get during sexual inter course she too was much excited. Her lover never tried to know the state of her mind. In this way her unending craving for love forced her to lie on bed with him. She oftenly thought about true and spiritual love. She heard about true love, but she found it nowhere. No man cared her tender feelings. Every time she was crushed under the lustfulness of her lovers. Embracing, kissing and then making sexual intercourse was a complete picture of life. In this male dominated world, sex was given much more importance than the feelings of love. She remembered well when her lover, under great intoxication of love put his mouth on her tender cheeks, but she in spite of her disliking for him, could not resist him and allowed him to proceed. She lay in the bed without opposing him. He ignored her gloominess. When the poetess and the lover remained busy in sexual intercourse, there pervaded silence in the room. No word was exchanged. Only the body communicated.
Her lover made love to her with much fervour and much passion, but she could not decide whether it was sheer lust which motivated his action or there was any feeling of love also in his heart. She then had the feeling that the chances of their being any love in that man's heart were rather thin. Later on she observed that he was completely lusty. He was only hunger of her body, but the poetess also, under the illusion of love, provided him her company in the lusty game. To surrender before her lover was her mute consent. Both were engaged in sexual intercourse without communicating any word. Sometimes her lover would come to her at noon and after embracing her into his hinds, he would quench the thirst of his body. At noon, she, unwillingly, lay on bed with him. She remembered that at noon she saw the crows flying in the sky. It seemed as if they bad poison on their wings and they were scattering poison in the atmosphere. She recalled the night when she was involved in sexual intercourse with her lover. She too was excited and overwhelmed with sexual desire during lusty moment. During sexual intercourse she was lying on bed in unconscious state, but when their sexual act was over. She at once, preserved her conscious state and she felt that she was able to know what was happening around her. At the same time, she could hear the pious words of the corpse - bearers. They were carrying the dead body to the cremation ground to be burnt and were uttering the words “Bol Hari Bol” loudly. She could, at once, feel herself like a dead body. She, after sexual intercourse, was lying on her bed like a dead body. She felt her body lifeless. She recalled the experience of moonless nights. When the nights were dark she felt herself highly dejected. She oftenly walked in verandah in discomfortable state. As she had no love in her life and always felt great want of the feelings of love, she et utterly loneliness. When she sat in a silent room, a million questions arose in her and about the true and spiritual love. She thought that true love is only an illusion in woman life. Every man is lusty and hungry of woman's body. What she had felt in the course of the sexual act with that lover was only a physical desire. In fact, Kamala Das was also fond of sexual intercourse. She looked for the feelings of love in her lover, but she too was in great want of this feeling of love. During sexual intercourse she too was keenly interested in this lusty game.
Critical Appreciation of the Poem:
Introduction:
The poem entitled In Love shows the hollowness of sexual love, this skin - communicated thing. It was published in 1965 in Kamala Das’ very first volume of poems entitled “Summer in Calcutta”. Kamala Das presents a brief account of a sexual experience which created a kind of dilemma for her. She observes that sterile love which does not result in emotional fulfilment and integration, gives only frustrations and disillusionments to woman. She pines for love but her explorations of love end in sex and lust.
Thought - Content:
The poetess’ lover made love to her with much fervour and much passion, but till the end she could not decide whether it was sheer lust which motivated his action or there was any feeling of love also in heart. She then had the feeling that the chances of there being any love in that man's were rather thin. The lover, whose mouth was like the burning mouth of sun spread his limbs like carnivorous plants for the poetess and drew her up in his embraces,. When the lust had been quenched, the undercurrent came out to the surface. She distinctly heard the words ‘Bol Hari Bol’ from the men carrying a dead body to the cremation ground. A million questions then arose in her mind as she sat in the silent room. The answer to these questions was that real love was quite elusive and therefore hard to find anywhere. What she had felt in the course of the sexual act with that lover was only a ‘skin communicated thing’. It was the sublimation of her unending lust into eternal fulfilment through physical annihilation.
Confessional Element:
The poem is confessional and autobiographical. It reveals the poetess’ own futile yearning for love, her involvement in barren and sterile sex, her subsequent agonies, tortures, disillusionments and death - wish. The man, who was her lover, was repulsive. He did not love her and callously ignored her emotional fulfilment in love. He indulged only in sex acts. The poetess describes his ugly appearance:
“Of what does the burning mouth
Of sun burning in today's
Sky remind me ...... oh, yes, his
Mouth, and ...... his limbs like pate and
Carnivorous plants reaching
Out for me, and the sad lie
Of my unending lust.”
Her Feminism in the Poem:
The poem expresses the poetess’ dilemma in relation to a man who had made love to her in a manner which made her wonder whether there was any real love to her in a manner which made her wonder whether there was any real love or affection in his sexual act or whether it was an act prompted by a purely physical desire. Perhaps the man's seeming love for her was only a ‘skin - communicated thing’. Here once again, the poetess protests against the attitude of lovers who seem to be fervent and passionate in their love - making but who actually feel no love at all for the women with whom they perform sexual act.
Sex Imagery:
The poem also contains the imagery of lust or love, or both. This poem begins with a picture of the sun (or the mouth of the sun) burning in the sky. The burning sun reminds the poetess of a lover's mouth and also of his limbs which seemed to be reaching out for her like carnivorous plants. Then in the middle of the poem, we have a picture of the poetess watching a crow flying ‘like poison on wings’.
Style and Language:
The poem has been written in free verse and reads like prose. It is entirely devoid of any musical or melodic effects. However, the words have been well chosen and been arranged in excellent combinations. She also shows her talent for using very appropriate, and even felicitous, metaphors and similes. The lover's limbs have been compared to carnivorous plants. The man's embrace, which is a complete thing in itself, is described metaphorically as a ‘finished jigsaw’. Then the crows flying in the sky are compared to ‘poison on wings’.
