Summary of A.K. Ramanujam's "A River"

  

Introduction

A.K. Ramanujam was born in Karnataka and brought up in Madras.  He is considered as one of the major modern poets of Indian poetry in English.  He has published many poems.  In almost all his poems he uses images of traditional India and places them in the modern context.  A River is one of A.K. Ramanujam’s finest poems.  It is about river Vaigai, which flows through Madurai.  Through this poem the poet talks about the old and modern Tamil poets, who have not given importance to human sufferings and emotions.

 

River during Summer Season

He begins the poem by introducing river Vaigai, which runs through Madurai, a city of temples and poets.  During summer, the river gets dry and trickles in the sand.  When all the water vanishes, the river poses straws and women’s hair clogging in the iron bars under the bridges.  The bridges are also worn out and needs mending. The river has only sand, which is like bare ribs.  There are a few wet stones, which are like sleepy crocodiles.  Apart from the stones one could see buffaloes resting in the sun.

 

Old Poets’ Observations

Ramanujam talks about the old poets, who had been in Madurai during rainy season.  They had seen river Vaigai flooded with water.  They praise the flooded water.  Their praise is all about the way the river raises by inches and how it covers the steps in the bathing place.  The poets also give a live relay, as the common people do, on how it carried away three village houses, a couple of cows named Gopi and Brinda and a pregnant woman.

 

New Poets’ Observations

            The new poets are also like the old poets.  They quote the old poets with minor changes to achieve sensation.  They say how the water level raises in the river and how it carries away a village house, a couple of cows named Gopi and Brinda and a pregnant woman probably carrying identical twins within her. 

 

A.K. Ramanujam’s Satire

            Through this poem A.K. Ramanujam satirizes on how the olden day poets and modern day poets does not view the human pain when the river dries or when the river carries their properties and people.  He comes down heavily upon the poets who are more like normal human beings and forsake to represent human emotions and troubles, which is a duty of a poet.  The poet subtly affirms the work of a poet and at the same time highlights the wrong done by the old and modern poets.