Apparently, recently a National Women's Day was celebrated. It seems it is dedicated to the memory of Sarojini Naidu. She is the face of women's participation in the freedom struggle, while, across the world, she is the poetic voice of India in the pre- Independence phase of Indian English Literature.
Last year I had to teach two of her poems. The first one dealt with the concept of Madhura Bhakti. Not every student liked the Radha-Krishna love. The poem described three instances of Radha's love for Krishna, in the fare, during the festival, and in a Temple. The poem also talked of how Radha could see only Krishna everywhere.
I analysed every poetic feature of the poem, the dramatic monologue, the images, the symbols, the figures of speech, the works. Finally, I analysed the allegory in the poem, the religious/philosophical notions involved, the Advaita philosophy, et al. In the post analysis discussion, a few students found the poem too heavy, too cliched, an impossible concept of love. A typical response of the early twenties group for whom love is the first step as per the fourfold Greek definition.
To another group, I had to teach "Palanquin bearers". They loved my presentation of the poetic beauties of the Naidu text. In the post analysis stage, I related the poem to the notion of labour, to the concept of glorifying manual work to indirectly gloss over it. Students loved the concept, and, boy, did we have a discussion! They were passionate about how labour can be obliterated through pretty words. Well, Marx' concepts never die however much Marxists and their critiques may obfuscate poor Marx!
Pratima@ poetry is philosophy, psychology, political economy, the works, in brief!
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