POEM : A RIVER by A K RAMANUJAN

 UNIT - II [CREATIVE ENGLISH]

THORY PART

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ATTIPATE KRISHNASWAMI RAMANUJAN

Born: 16 March 1929, Mysuru

Died: 13 July 1993 (age 64 years), Chicago, Illinois, United States

Discipline : Dravidian linguistics and Indian literature; English poetry

Notable works : The Striders (1966), Second Sight

Notable Award: MacArthur Fellowship, Sahitya Akademi Award & Padma Shree

THEME OF THE POEM

‘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.

POEM SUMMARY VIDEO IN TAMIL

LINK : https://youtu.be/NiK5VBjARaQ?si=GdNP8Ac0oRpuOCmi

POEM SUMMARY VIDEO IN ENGLISH 

LINK: https://youtu.be/O2lw7yCP-AE?si=g2_DhDCcjXBSLNaw