Thematic concerns of Kamala Das Poetry: The old playhouse and other poems

Kamala Das (1934-2009) is primarily a poet of feminine longings. Her poetry reflects her restlessness as a sensitive woman moving in the male-dominated society, and in them she appears as a champion of woman’s cause’. She raises her forceful voice against the male tyranny in her poetry. Her poetical collections in English are: Summer in Calcutta (1965), The Descendents (1967), and The Old Playhouse and other poems (1973). The present paper deals with theme of the poetry of Kamala Das particularly The Old Playhouse and other poems.

The anthology contains thirty-three poems in all, of which twenty have been taken from the two previous volumes. Thus there are only thirteen new poems which reveal new facets, and a further artistic maturity. The love-theme is still there, but an entirely new dimension and a new intensity are added to its treatment. Further, the poems of the volume reveal the poet’s pre-occupation with death and decay not noticeable in the earlier volumes.

The title piece is the poet’s protest against the domination of the male and the consequent dwarfing of the female. The woman is expected to play certain conventional roles, and her own wishes and aspirations are not taken into account. The intensity of the protest, conveyed in conversational idiom and rhythm, make it symbolic of the protest of all womanhood against the male ego:

You called me wife, I was taught to break