River Poem Notes 1

A RIVER
A K RAMANUJAN
About the Poet
Ramanujan worked as a lecturer of English at Quilon and Belgaum; he later taught

at The Maharaja Sayajirao University in Baroda for about eight years. In 1962, he
joined the University of Chicago as an assistant professor. He was affiliated with
the university throughout his career, teaching in several departments. He taught at
other US universities as well, including Harvard University, University of
Wisconsin, University of Michigan, University of California at Berkeley,
and Carleton College. At the University of Chicago, Ramanujan was instrumental
in shaping the South Asian Studies program. He worked in the departments of
South Asian Languages and Civilizations, Linguistics, and with the Committee on
Social Thought.
In 1976, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri and in 1983, he

was given the MacArthur Prize Fellowship (Shulman, 1994). In 1983, he was
appointed the William E. Colvin Professor in the Departments of South Asian
Languages and Civilizations, of Linguistics, and in the Committee on Social
Thought at the University of Chicago. That same year, he received a MacArthur
Fellowship. As an Indo-American writer, Ramanujan had the experience of the
native as well as foreign milieu. His poems such as the "Conventions of Despair"
reflected his views on the cultures and conventions of the east and west.
A.K. Ramanujan’s ‘A River’ is of his finest poem taken from his magnum
opus, The Striders (1965). Here the poet has compared and contrasted the attitudes
1
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 does not reflect the miseries of the human beings. He has
proved this point in the present poem.
Summary of A River

‘A River’ by A.K. Ramanujan describes how poets of the past and present
have romanticized a river in Madurai. The poem begins with the speaker
stating that every year, every poet sings the same songs about the
sometimes flooding, and sometimes empty riverbed. When it is empty, all
its hidden items are exposed. The poets have always sung about this
period and the other in which the flood happens. But, they don’t get into the
details of who is impacted.
In the next stanzas, the speaker relays the words of the citizens of
this area as they describe what happened this year. Houses were washed
away, as were two cows and a woman who thought she was pregnant with
twins. The speaker derides the old and new poets for not caring enough to
look deeper into their environments.

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Analysis of A River
Stanza One
In Madurai,
city of temples and poets,
(…)
shaven water-buffaloes lounging in the sun
The poets only sang of the floods.
In the first stanza of this piece, the speaker begins by setting the scene. He
is going to be describing how the city of “Madurai” is described by poets. It
is a place that is made up of “temples and poets” and these poets have
always sung of the same things. Every summer in the city the river basin is
emptied. The river “dries to a trickle” and the sand is bared. The shapes and
objects that are revealed are dark and somewhat ominous. The are “sand
ribs” and “straw and women’s hair”. These things clog up the “watergates,”
made of rusty bars.
Ramanujan makes use of consonance in these lines with the repetition of
the “g” sound. Rhythm is also created through the use of reuse of the word
“sand” in lines six and seven. Then, in general, the repetition of words
3
beginning of “s,” or words that carry the “s” sound. This is especially true
for the first half of the stanza.
Everything about the drainage system is old and in need of repair. The
bridge is in patches, a fact that is revealed when the waters recede. In the
last lines of this stanza, Ramanujan uses two metaphors to compare the
stones to animals. The wet ones appear like crocodiles sleeping and the
dry as lounging water-buffaloes. Despite all of this, the poets “only sang of
the floods.” There is so much more to the city that the poets are ignoring.

Stanza Two
He was there for a day

when they had the floods.
(…)
and a couple of cows
named Gopi and Brinda as usual.
The second stanza of ‘A River’ is only eleven lines. The “He” in the first line
is a reference to a poet, perhaps the speaker himself. He states that he was
only in the city for “a day”. It is in this stanza that a number of the more
complicated and personal details are revealed. The details were not hidden,
they were easily learned by the poet featured in this stanza.
Everywhere the people spoke about the flood and the terrible things which
resulted. It is not just a simple natural occurrence. It “carried off three
village houses” as well as a pregnant woman and “a couple of cows”. The
4
cows have names, making these lines lighter in tone than some of the
others. The list-like way in which this section of the poem is conveyed
makes it clear that these are not uncommon occurrences. The people are
used to them.
Stanza Three
The new poets still quoted

the old poets, but no one spoke
(…)
kicking at blank walls
even before birth.
The problem that the speaker has with poets is made clearer in the third
stanza of ‘A River’ as he speaks of the similarities between “old poets” and
“new poets”. Both spoke about the floods, yet ignored the tragedies which
5
resulted. In fact, to make it worse, the new poets copied what the old ones
did. There was no evolution in style or subject.
In the fifth and sixth lines of this section, the speaker states that it is
possible that the woman who died was going to give birth to twins,
increasing the life lost. This is a very interesting contrast to the flooding of
the river in the first place. The waters are meant to fertilize the land and
make it possible for the next crop to grow. Life is destroyed as it is being
created.

Stanza Four
He said:
the river has water enough
to be poetic
about only once a year
(…)
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with no moles on their bodies,
with different coloured diapers
to tell them apart.
In the final stanza, the speaker relays the words of the poet again. He said
that the poet complained of how “the river has water enough / to be
poetic / about only once a year”. It is only once a year that the poets pay
attention to it, and even then they don’t want to speak about the loss of
property or life.
The speaker repeats a section of the second stanza again, restating what
was lost. There are additional details added. Now, he says that the woman
believed she was “expecting identical twins”. They were going to be
perfectly the same, with no way to tell them apart except through dressing
them in “coloured diapers”. This is another humorous line, but it has a
darker undertone. It speaks to the lack of care with which the poets
approached the land and people. There is no desire to know who these
people are or quest to adequately depict their suffering.

River Poem Notes 1

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A RIVER

About the Poet

Ramanujan worked as a lecturer of English at Quilon and Belgaum; he later taught

In 1976, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri and in 1983, he

Summary of A River

He was there for a day

The new poets still quoted

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