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THE LOTUS by Toru Dutt (Summary)

 

THE LOTUS

by Toru Dutt

(Summary) 

Poem

Summary

Toru Dutt was a poetess of a poet family. Her elder sister Aru Dutt was also a poetess. Her father and her mother also wrote verses in English as well as in Bengali.

The poem, The Lotus is a romantic poem. It is a sonnet, in which the poet compares the lotus flower with other flowers.

In the first part (octave) of the sonnet the poet describes the demand of Love which she makes to Flora. In the second part (sestet) she compares the beauty of the rose, the lily and the Lotus and has proved the supremacy of the Lotus.

Toru Dutt imagines, that the god of love goes to the goddess of flowers Flora and asks her to give him the most beautiful flower. The two flowers, the rose and the lily, claim their superiority for this prestigious state. The flora then asks love about the color of the flower. Love requests flora to give him that flower which possesses the color and beauty of both Rose and Lily, and flora gives him the Lotus. In this way, flora gives Lotus the supreme place among the flowers because the lotus has both the whiteness of the lily and the redness of the rose. The white color is the symbol of purity and innocence, whereas the red color stands for the heat of emotions. i.e. love and affection.

The sonnet has romantic thoughts in it. The poetess has personified both Love and Flora. The rhyming scheme in this sonnet is- a b b a, a b b a, and c d c d c d.

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