Themes in Kamala Das Poetry

Abstract

Kamala Das was born on 31st March’ 1934 in Malabar, Kerala. Kamala's love for writing sprouted at a very early young age of 14 years. Though she had an impeccable command over Malayalam and English language but found an instinctive inclination towards English as a medium for her expression. She was one of the Confessional Poets like Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton and many others. Das was married at an early age of 15 years, which made a great impact on her poetry. Kamala Das is the First Indian woman who wrote very openly on Love and Sex. Her poems have a touch of true love, sex, isolation, sufferings and also quest for identity. Her poems are not only subjective but also have elements of her autobiography in it. Kamala Das used a pen name “Madhavikutty”. Das has also written her autobiography “My Story” in which she has honestly expressed all that she has faced and also very frankly accepted all the extramarital affairs she had. She writes autobiographically, “All the pain unexpressed and the sad tales left untold made me recklessly and in protest.” Being unloved made her a feminist writer.