Review of Jhumpa Lahari’s poem ‘Cupboard’

Review of Jhumpa Lahari’s poem ‘Cupboard’ https://modernpoetryintranslation.com/poem/cupboard/ I request readers to read the poem first from the link above, and then only my review. Thanks. We gather the following details from the poem: 1.This is a new apartment into which the poet is moving and there were many clothes of women of various generations who had lived in that apartment. 2.She is not moving into this alone, but with some one or more people, after recovering from an abortion at her own initiative. 3.The wobbling daybed could have been discarded by her when she vacated the previous hideout, but she brought it and dumped it in the basement of the apartment complex. 4.The women managed all the chores of the household like pressing or washing the utensils etc. 5.Just like the clothes of other women, the foetus was something she couldn’t identify with. The following expressions are figurative: 1. the plastic sheathing her raiments whispered back. 2. The weight surprised me – I had to drag them, cupping my hands beneath the sleeves as if they contained real armpits. 3. Now in the cold dark they drape the wobbly daybed What the poem subtly left unsaid are these: 1.Who was the father of the foetus that had to be aborted 2.She was with who in her old apartment 3.She has moved in here with who 4.Over generations the sufferings of women remain confined to darkness of a cupboard or basement, but whether they were members of the family or maids is left unsaid. 5.Even an inanimate might turn empathetic to women and not humans In the eyes of the poet, the exact scenario behind what is left unsaid is not so important compared to the disturbing plight of women and society’s outlook to them. Probably the poet points her finger at the women folk too, who put up with injustices and give fodder to patriarchy. I have read two of her fictions. Now I find she is a promising poet too.