THE LOTUS
by Toru Dutt
(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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