Thursday, June 26, 2025

Summer in Calcutta by Kamala Das

 

  • 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.


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    Summer in Calcutta by Kamala Das

      Summer in Calcutta by Kamala Das | Poem Summary and Analysis” “Kamala Das’s Summer in Calcutta Explained | Themes, Imagery & Meanin...