Abstract

This study presents a comparative analysis of the voice of woman in Indian English poetry in terms of the poems written by Sarojini Naidu and Kamala Das. It will show how the two poets despite the fact that they belong to different generations and usually seen as opposed to each other (as being representatives of colonial romanticism and post-independence modernism respectively) belong to one developmental line and not opposing parties. While Naidu puts woman at the centre of the poem without taking away the screen from her face Das puts woman at the centre of the poem but without covering her using the language of the body marriage sexuality and loss. Reading Naidu’s “An Indian Love Song” and “In Salutation to the Eternal Peace” beside Das’s “An Introduction” and “My Grandmother’s House” the paper compares the two across six shared concerns: the veil the body the lyric “I” love tradition and nation and the choice between song and speech. Naidu loosens the veil Das removes it. The chan