An Introduction
The poem An Introduction is an autobiographical verse of Kamala that throws light on the life of a woman in the patriarchal society. This is a confessional poem. I have divided the poem into five parts for better understanding.
I have tried to first give a brief explanation of the lines and then provide a comprehensive analysis. I hope you will get through the poem and understand its central idea.
Poem Summary,
Men as the Rulers of Country
I don’t know politics, but I know the names
Of those in power, and can repeat them like
Days of the week, or names of months, beginning with Nehru.
The poet starts explaining by saying that she doesn’t know the politics, yet she is well aware of the politicians of her country from Nehru to the ones of her own times.
And as the politics of India has always remained in fewer hands (of males) she has memorized the names of all the politicians like the days of the week or the names of the month.
The lines depict how the males have been ruling the country without giving this right to the women. Moreover, the rulers are fewer in numbers because democracy exists only in words. In reality, the rule of the country remains in the hands of some people only, who have assumed themselves to be the permanent rulers.
Women are Individuals Too
I am Indian, very brown, born in Malabar,
I speak three languages, write in
Two, dream in one.
Now the poet comes towards her own life experience. She says that she is an Indian, and she is brown (as compared to the British). She is born in Malabar. She can speak three languages, write in two, and dreams in one of the dreams have a universal language. In these lines, she explains her Indian Headland.
Like most of the citizens of India, she is also capable of speaking three languages and writing in two, probably the English and her native language. She says that she dreams of one because the world of dreams is common to all. In this world, every individual, male or female, uses the same universal language.
In my opinion, these lines can be interpreted in another way as well. The poet perhaps tries to show her ability in the educational sphere, which is no access to most of the women.
She says that she speaks three languages and is also capable of writing in two. In addition, is also dreams of any man in the world. She probably compares herself to the man of the world, trying to show that she is no lesser than him.
She possesses all those qualities and abilities that make him superior. Hence, though she is a woman, she is no lesser than him in terms of ability, passion, and creativeness. Moreover, in the world of dreams, she is equally an individual as the man is, and so she wants this status in the real world as well.
Poet’s Struggle for Freedom
Don’t write in English, they said, English is
Not your mother-tongue. Why not leave
Me alone, critics, friends, visiting cousins,
Every one of you? Why not let me speak in
Any language I like?
Being well familiar with the English, she uses this language in her writings. However, this habit of her is not liked by her friends, relatives, and critics. They all condemn her for writing in English as according to them, English is the language of the colonists. She asks them why they criticize her. Why she is not given liberty to write in whatever language she desires.
In these lines, she exposes the jealous nature of her nears and dears, who cannot endure her skills. This makes them criticize her. Having no logical reason to put restrictions on her writing in English, they try to tell her that the language she writes in, is the language of Colonists, and thus she should avoid using it.
However, she asks them how a language can be owned by a particular community. It belongs to every person who uses it, and thus she should not be stopped from using it.
The language I speak,
Becomes mine, its distortions, its queerness
All mine, mine alone.
It is half English, half Indian, funny perhaps, but it is honest,
It is as human as I am human, don’t
You see?
The language in which she writes is her own, along with all its imperfections and strangeness. The language is, though not fully English, yet she considers it to be honest because like her as her language is also imperfect like her which a quite normal thing is.
In these lines, she shows her ownership of the English and also the freedom of using it. She is imperfect, but this makes her a human. Thus, she should not be scolded for her mistakes or shortcoming.
But she wonders why society ignores the mistakes or even blunders of men and questions the mistakes of women, although the fact is that every person in the world is imperfect.
It voices my joys, my longings, my
Hopes, and it is useful to me as cawing
Is to crows or roaring to the lions, it
Is human speech, the speech of the mind that is
Here and not there, a mind that sees and hears and
Is aware. Not the deaf, blind speech
Of trees in storm or of monsoon clouds or of rain or the
Incoherent mutterings of the blazing
Funeral pyre.
The language expresses her joys, grief, and hopes. For he, it is like cawing is to crows and roaring is to lions, it is an integral part of her expression.
She further says that her speech (in English) is the speech of humans that minds can understand and not strange and queer like the sound of trees in the storms or of monsoon clouds or of rain or of dead as these voices cannot be understood. The links are below :
https://paidforarticles.in/tonight-i-can-write-558725
https://paidforarticles.in/top-summary-of-the-poem-tonight-i-can-write-second-part-558820
https://paidforarticles.in/top-summary-of-the-poem-what-spain-like-was-559306
https://paidforarticles.in/how-to-summarize-a-valediction-forbidding-mourning-558495
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