A River
A.K.Ramanujan
In Madurai,
city of temples and poets,
who sang of cities and temples,
every summer
a river dries to a trickle
in the sand,
baring the sand ribs,
straw and women's hair
clogging the watergates
at the rusty bars
under the bridges with patches
of repair all over them
the wet stones glistening like sleepy
crocodiles, the dry ones
shaven water-buffaloes lounging in the sun
The poets only sang of the floods.
He was there for a day
when they had the floods.
People everywhere talked
of the inches rising,
of the precise number of cobbled steps
run over by the water, rising
on the bathing places,
and the way it carried off three village houses,
one pregnant woman
and a couple of cows
named Gopi and Brinda as usual.
The new poets still quoted
the old poets, but no one spoke
in verse
of the pregnant woman
drowned, with perhaps twins in her,
kicking at blank walls
even before birth.
He said:
the river has water enough
to be poetic
about only once a year
and then
it carries away
in the first half-hour
three village houses,
a couple of cows
named Gopi and Brinda
and one pregnant woman
expecting identical twins
with no moles on their bodies,
with different coloured diapers
to tell them apart.
every summer
a river dries to a trickle
in the sand,
baring the sand ribs,
straw and women's hair
clogging the watergates
at the rusty bars
under the bridges with patches
of repair all over them
the wet stones glistening like sleepy
crocodiles, the dry ones
shaven water-buffaloes lounging in the sun
The poets only sang of the floods.
He was there for a day
when they had the floods.
People everywhere talked
of the inches rising,
of the precise number of cobbled steps
run over by the water, rising
on the bathing places,
and the way it carried off three village houses,
one pregnant woman
and a couple of cows
named Gopi and Brinda as usual.
The new poets still quoted
the old poets, but no one spoke
in verse
of the pregnant woman
drowned, with perhaps twins in her,
kicking at blank walls
even before birth.
He said:
the river has water enough
to be poetic
about only once a year
and then
it carries away
in the first half-hour
three village houses,
a couple of cows
named Gopi and Brinda
and one pregnant woman
expecting identical twins
with no moles on their bodies,
with different coloured diapers
to tell them apart.
Analysis of Poem
The poem “A River” is written by A.K.
Ramanujan. In this poem, the poet has compared and contrasted the
attitudes of the old poets and those of the new poets to human
suffering. He has come to the conclusion that both the groups of the
poets are indifferent to human sorrow and suffering. Their poetry dose
not reflects the miseries of the human beings. He has proved this point
in the present poem.
The river Vaikai on whose bank the
historic city of Madurai stands has been mentioned in the poems of many
poets, both past and present. The river is intimately associated with
the life and culture of the Tamil people. The peculiar thing, which
appeals to the poets, is that the river presents two different
spectacles in two different season. It is completely dry in summer and
flooded in full in the rainy season.
In this poem, the poet refers to the
river Vaikai which flows through the city of Madurai. The word Madurai
means a “sweet city”. It is a Tamil word. As a matter of fact, this city
is the center of Tamil culture and learning. It is also a holy city
full of temples including the famous Minakshee temple. The poets have
written many poems on the temples and the river. In the present poem,
A.K. Ramanujan deals with the river.
In the poem “A River”, we get two
pictures based upon two different kinds of description. In the summer,
the river is almost empty. Only a very thin stream of water flows. So
the sand ribs on the bed of the river are visible. The stones that lie
on the bed of the river also exposed to view. The portion of the river
under the bridge has also been described. We get a vivid picture of the
river in the summer season.
There is also the picture of the river in the rainy season. Generally, all kinds of poets have written about it in their poems.
During the rainy season when the floods
crone the people observe it very anxiously. They remember the rising of
the river inch by inch from time to time. They remember how the stone
steps of the bathing place are submerged one by one.
They see how three village houses were
damaged and carried off by the floods. They now how two cows named
Brinda and Gopi were carried away. They also know how a pregnant woman
was also drowned in the river during the flood. Both the old and new
poets have mentioned these things in their poems. But the way they have
described these things in their poems shows that they were not much
alive to or sympathetic with human suffering.
They did not mention the name of the
woman who was carrying twins. Before their birth, she was drowned in the
flooded river. At the time of drowning, most probably the twins must
have kicked the sides of her womb. She must have got much pain out of
this. But both the new poets and old poets did not refer to all these
miseries of the woman in their poetic creations.
This becomes ultimately clear that they
are not sympathetic with suffering human beings. They are totally
callous and indifferent. This kind of attitude makes their poetry weak
and unappealing, dry and cheerless.
The tone of the poem is based on sarcasm
and irony. The structure of the poem has been in paragraphs and single
lines. There are four longer verse paragraphs and a shorter one in the
beginning. There are only two single isolated lines. This kind of
structural arrangement contributes to the effect of irony. It also helps
to grasp the main points clearly. Secondly, a word can be said about
the language used in the poem. It is very simple on account of which the
thought sequence of the poem is presented unmistakably and clearly.
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