University of Chester: Binu Rani Albert

Let’s meet Binu Rani Albert!

Binu is a student at the University of Chester.

What part of the commonwealth are you celebrating today?

India

What is your favourite poem? 

‘The Suicide” by the late Indian poet Kamala Das

What does the poem mean to you? 

This is one of my favourites because this is a confessional mode of a poem where certain dogmas of  society are reflected especially about women and once they enter into the role of wife what all they have to undergo supress her feelings and act happy. This poem relates very much to my personal life experiences hence I like this one.

‘The Suicide’ by Kamala Das

How easy your duties are.
How simple.
Only roar a hungry roar,
Leao forward,
And retreat.
You swing and you swing,
O sea, you play a child’s game.
But,
I must pose.
I must pretend,
I must act the role
Of happy woman,
Happy wife.

Thanks Binu for putting me on to Kamala Das – and this powerful and honest poem which has so much relevance still today. I’m reminded a bit of Sylvia Plath.

Hello Ben, thank you for your response to Binu’s contribution! I completely agree, there is an element of Plath’s confessional poetry in Kas’s ‘The Suicide’.