|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
INDIAN women poets writing in English, from Toru Dutt to Kamla Das and from Sarojani Naidu to Suniti Nam Joshi, reveal the variety of themes and styles that poetry is capable of offering. The present generation of women poets have made their poetic language chiseled, sharp, pithy and effortless. New trends and techniques in women’s poetry remarkably connect with various spheres of life. Margaret Chatterjee, a well-known and greatly respected philosopher, has absorbed a variety of influences dealing with range of themes and generating diverse straits of poetic expressions. She has done extensive research on Gandhi’s life and has published eight books. She came in contact with people from diverse cultures during her travels abroad, and it reflects in her poems that have different themes.
Chatterjee finds many similarities in situations at different places. Lovers in Buda is the story of lovers who have nowhere to go. "Like lovers at / So many other times, / They had no where to go, wandering sedately / In parks, / gazing and gazing, / Garnering moments / From acres of time / Spent apart". Desire is about being alive. It is said that "Inordinate desire/ should be avoided`85But desire is/ A miracle. It shows we/ Are alive." And how true it is! Chatterjee has used beautiful expressions in her poems, e.g., in Cactus, as she describes the softer moments in one’s life thus: "The cactus puts up/ A thousand defences;/ You touch at your peril./Once a year/ This one explodes/ In dazzling whiteness. / Such beauty cannot tarry." Three small poems, Chinese Juniper, Japanese White Pine and Cherry, describe the condition of bonsai. In Chinese Juniper, Chatterjee compares bonsai with a small girl: "Your bonsai, / Wired down, / Is a young girl / With braces on her teeth." While Japanese White Pine shows her feelings of wariness, "Having stared / To grow / I know it / Will weather / Over several / Generations", in the poem Cherry, she takes a more optimistic view, "Just look at this bonsai / Cut down to size, / With just enough / Roots to survive. / It still blooms. There are light-hearted
poems, too, like Snapshot, On the Train, Arguing with a
Translator, Changing Talents, and Bons Mots. All the
poems convey the depth of Chatterjee’s feelings, depicting her
different moods and varied shades of life. They "invite the reader
to ponder on the infinite resources of human experience".
|
The
poem On Seeing Laurence Whistler’s Engravings in St. Nickolas
Church at Moreton describes the beauty of church and its entirely
engraved windows of glass, while On the Coast of Inglesey beautifully
describes the seashore, "The roaring sea, flings blue stones on the
shore, shape upon shape, upon shape. Sea and wind sculptors rival
Brancussi." Ciphers tells about her visits to Glastonbury
Abbey, a ruined castle in Wiltshire and North Wales. About North Wales,
she writes: "Battered by winds, / Trees lean; Not yet time / To
touch the ground, / The roots hold." Though these are very short
poems, they have lot of depth.