“I” of “I SPEAK FOR THE DEVIL” Imtiaz Darker’s Poem

Abstract

Imtiaz Dharker has not allowed her orthodox religion to stop her from the expression of her potentialities in her poetry in the form of confessional mode. No wonder, her rebel­lion has caused a tremble among the so called guardians of orthodox re­ligion and the custodians of common masses. Her concern in her poetry particularly in “I speak for devil” has been the existential pain of humanity as revealed mainly through woman’s relationship with man and the male-dominated society. She writes with frankness and openness unusual in the Indian background but in the view point of West. She exploits the confessional mode in order to discover the images that evoke the joy and frustration of achieved womanhood. The adverse circumstances have rendered her vision tragic and melancholy, her upbringing by Islamic parents, and her marriage though with a Hindu or English man of her own choice in order to remove her parental control. She expresses about these adverse circumstances in her famous poem “I speak for the devil”. This paper will try to find the first person “I” of the collection under same name.