Critical analysis of The River poem by A.K Ramanujan

1. The River
by A.K. Ramanujan
• Murk Razzaque

2. A.K.Ramanujan
•Poet, translator, folklorist and philologist.
•born in Mysore, India.
•Studied at University of Mysore and Indiana University.
•Wrote in English and Kannada.
•Major ideas: Hybridity and Transculturation.
•Famous works: Second Sight (1986), Selected Poems
(1976), and The Striders (1966).
•Contributions
•Died : July 13,1993.

3. City of Madurai

4. Vaigai River

5. Summary
• The poet talks about how different poets have
portrayed Vaigai.
• Poets write about the same things.
• Poets old and new write about the river’s beauty.
• They do not write about the destructive side of
the river.
• A.K. Ramanujan describes the real horrors of
flooding of river Vaigai.
• He mocks other poets of their indifference to it.

6. Stanza 1
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.

7. Stanza 2
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.

8. Stanza 3
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.

9. Stanza 4
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.

10. Literary Devices
 Alliteration:
E.g: “a couple of cows”
 Consonance:
E.g: “city of temples and poets,
who sang of cities and temples,
“The new poets still quoted
the old poets, but no one spoke.

11. Literary Devices
 Enjambment:
E.g: “every summer
a river dries to a trickle”
 Metaphor:
E.g: “ the wet stones glistening like sleepy crocodiles”
“ the dry ones shaven water-buffaloes lounging in the sun”.

12. Literary Devices
 Imagery:
E.g: “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.”

13. Symbols
 The Flood: The destructive flood at the Vaigai river symbolizes the
cruelty, and oppression of colonizers upon the colonized people.
 The Old and New Poets: The old and new poets, depict how the
literature, what and how things were written were controlled by the
colonizers.
 The Dried River: The barren sand on the river symbolizes the
exploitation, misery, and suffering of the common masses of the
colonized country.

14. Symbols
 Patches under the Bridge: The patches under the bridge
depicts the wounds of the common masses of the colonized
country.
 The Rusty Bars: It symbolizes the glory of the past (the Mughal era)
which was faded away due to colonization.
 The Clogged Straws and Hair: It depicts how the peace and the
freedom of the common masses was disturbed due to the colonization.

15. Symbols
 The Unborn Twins: The unborn twins symbolize the
suffocating sufferings of the people of the subcontinent, how
the natives were trying to get out of the brutality of the
colonizers.
The unborn twins also depicts the struggle of human life, how
the struggle starts before common masses are even born and
that there is no escape from it.

16. Quick Quiz
What was the city mentioned in the poem?
a. Chennai
b. Mumbai
c. Madurai
d. Delhi

17.  Madurai

18. Madurai is the city of _____?
Schools and poets
Poets and flowers
Scholars and sadist
Temples and poets

19.  Temples and Poets

20. Which river flows through the city of Madurai?
a. Vaigai
b. Kaveri
c. Kothavari
d. Thamirabarani

21.  Vaigai

22. What are the two different seasons mentioned
in the poem?
a. Summer and winter
b. Summer and rainy
c. Spring and winter
d. Spring and rainy

23.  Summer and Rainy

24. What were the names of the couple of cows?
a.Brinda and Krishna
b.Gopi and Krishna
c.Brinda and Bala
d.Gopi and Brinda

25.  Gopi and Brinda

26. The pregnant women was expecting _________?
a. A baby boy
b. A baby girl
c. Identical twins
d. Unidentical twins

27.  Identical Twins

28. Thank you!