Notes on My Grandmother's House by Kamala Das
The poem My Grandmother's House has taken many, many classes, with varying levels of productivity, to complete. To begin with, there was a brief discussion about the poet herself - her life, background, style etc. In the next class, to "set the mood," we shared our memories of our grandparents, and the lessons we've learnt from them. In the last class, owing to the fact that not everyone had their textbooks, Sir briefly discussed (again) the poet, and the poem. There was a depressing reading-out in class, as well. Now for the notes. free verse house changed by death of grandmother: "The house withdrew into silence, snakes moved among books" "blind eyes of windows" = nobody inside? "frozen air" "Darkness" Author changed by death of grandmother: "my blood turned cold like the moon" Otherwise change in author: "once/ I received love" "was proud, and loved" "... I ...