Summer in Calcutta by Kamala Das | Poem Summary and Analysis”
“Kamala Das’s Summer in Calcutta Explained | Themes, Imagery & Meaning”
“Summer in Calcutta | Confessional Poetry by Kamala Das – Full Summary”
“UGC NET English | Summer in Calcutta by Kamala Das – Important Poem Explained”
Summer in Calcutta by Kamala Das
About the poem & the poet
-
Kamala Das (1934–2009), also known as Madhavikutty, was an influential Indian poet writing in English and Malayalam. Her works explore themes of love, sexuality, womanhood, and emotional longing.
-
“Summer in Calcutta” is the title poem of her first major poetry collection (Summer in Calcutta, 1965). It is often celebrated for its confessional, intensely personal style.
📝 summary of “Summer in Calcutta”
🌞 Setting & mood
-
The poem is set in Calcutta (now Kolkata) during its harsh summer. The city’s oppressive heat symbolizes both sensual vitality and emotional exhaustion.
-
The speaker describes how the summer sun dyes her mouth, burns her body, and makes her conscious of her own physicality.
🔍 Line-by-line ideas / progression
(Paraphrased conceptually, since the poem is free verse without strict stanzas.)
🔥 The sun & intoxication
-
The poem opens with vivid imagery: the afternoon sun dyes her mouth like the juice of a raw mango, suggesting a sharp, almost sour pleasure.
-
The sun is compared to a glass of wine, highlighting a kind of intoxication—the heat makes her dizzy, almost drunk.
💦 Physical surrender & sensual pleasure
-
Unlike typical complaints about the harsh Indian summer, the speaker embraces the heat.
-
She says it “burns the body”, but this burning is not entirely unpleasant—it leads to a heightened awareness of her body.
-
She willingly surrenders to the feverish season, likening it to a kind of passionate, dangerous lover.
🌿 Contrast with illusions
-
There’s a reference to cold-clime illusions—dreams of coolness, perhaps foreign or western ideals—that do not fit her reality.
-
Instead, she accepts her own environment, her own tropical, intense, vibrant self.
⚠️ Brief bitterness
-
At one point, the poem turns slightly bitter: acknowledging the short-lived joys of passion, which often turn into pain or regret.
❤️ Acceptance of identity & setting
-
Yet ultimately, she embraces the raw reality of her summer in Calcutta. It becomes a metaphor for accepting her own desires, flaws, and truths.
-
There is a tone of self-assertion: she will not escape to illusions of gentler climates or more subdued feelings.
🎯 Themes & interpretations
-
Sensuality & eroticism: The summer heat is an extended metaphor for bodily desires and passions.
-
Identity & acceptance: Rejecting imported ideals of beauty or mildness, the speaker owns her Indian identity, climate, and desires.
-
Ephemeral pleasure vs enduring pain: The sweetness of the summer (or of love) is brief and often followed by bitterness.
-
Confessional voice: True to Kamala Das’s style, the poem is intensely personal, almost diary-like in its honesty.
✍️ Language & style
-
Imagery: Powerful use of taste, heat, and color (raw mango, wine, burning).
-
Metaphor: Summer stands for passion and the self’s physical urgencies.
-
Tone: At once lush and weary, both celebrating and critiquing the intoxicating forces of desire.
📝 Conclusion
“Summer in Calcutta” is not just about a season—it is about embracing one's own heat, hunger, and contradictions.
Kamala Das uses the tropical summer as a symbol for female sensuality, self-awareness, and the inevitable mingling of pleasure and pain.