Reminiscing Smritikana: A Reader’s Glance through Poet Pankajini Basu’s Album of Memory of Verses/ স্মৃতিপটে স্মৃতিকণা : পাঠকের দৃষ্টিতে কবি পঙ্কজিনী বসু

Abstract

The number of women poets in 19th century Bengali literature is not scarce. Their poetry added a distinct voice to the literary repertoire of that age.  Since ‘Charyapada’, a series of talented women poets have adorned the bower of Bengali literature with their emotion, feelings, intellect, and style. Although the term ‘poet’ denotes a complete intellectual faculty that is gender neutral and holistic, some women poets of 19th century Bengali literature deserve special mention for certain reasons. Not because their poems are formally feministic as per strict academic parameters, but for the spontaneous expression of feminine experience in their works. Their voice as mother, wife, daughter, beloved or as a female friend or sister are recorded in their verses. Poet Pankajini Basu belongs to the undivided Bengal. Her brief tryst with poetry lasted only for four years until death muted her at the tender age of seventeen. Her vision as a teenage poet and specially her use of poetry as a vehicle for experimenting with her own adolescent psyche make her works curious documents of contemporary feminine experience. Her keen sound mind and inquisitive soul reflects brightly its promise and talent. Her collected poems were published as Smritikana. In that profound text, the readers find eternal melodies of wonder that captivate them.