“A River”, one of Ramanujan's finest poems, appeared in The Striders in 1966. It is a poem on the river Vaikai which flows through Madurai, a city that has for long been the seat of Tamil culture. The poem is an evocation of a river.
The poet clearly reveals the attitudes of both old and new Tamil poets who have shown utter indifference and callousness to human suffering at the time of devastating flood. It is conspicuous for ironic contrasts and good - humoured satire at poets who, are fond of sensational events such as flood and who are totally unconcerned for the devastation and suffering they cause to the people , clear and lucid style, vivid and picturesque descriptions, and precise and suggestive images. Ramanujan's sensibility is Indian. His Western education, his stay in U.S.A. and remoteness from India have sharpened his sensibility and he conjures up vivid pictures of Indian life from the vast treasure of his memory, K.R.S Iyengar remarks: “In The Striders Ramanujan summons from the hinterland of memory buried moments of suspense surprise or agony, and turns them into disturbingly vivid poems.” “A River” also expresses his recollections of his past. Madurai is a city noted for its temples and poets, who always sang of cities and temples. Here the poet ironically suggests that the poets ignored human beings and their sufferings. The river Vaikai flows in Madurai. It dries in every summer.
“baring the sand - ribs
straw and women's hair
clogging the Watergates.”
But no poet sang of the river that dried. “The poet sang only of the floods”. The contrast between the dry river and river in flood is vividly and picturesquely described. The river in flood
“carried off three village houses
one pregnant woman
and a couple of cows
named Gopi and Brinda, as usual."
Ramanujan makes an ironic dig at poets who sang only of floods and ignored human concern:
"but no one spoke
in verse
of the pregnant woman
drowned, with perhaps twins in her
kicking at blank walls
even before birth."
The river becomes poetic once a year when it has enough of water. How ironically the devastating power of the river is described:
“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.”
“A River” is also remarkable for the creation of tableau like effects, for example:
“every summer
a river drives 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.”
Ramanujan also employs repetitive vocabulary in this poem:
city of temples and poets
who sang of cities and temples.”
The imagery is suggestive and picturesque. The dryness of the river, described in the following lines, also suggests the emotional sterility and want of human concern of poets:
"Straw and women's hair
clogging the watergates
at the rusty bars … "
“A River” is a fine poem which reveals A. K. Ramanujan's ability as a flawless poetic craftsman.