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 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.
The poem is all about a river, Vaigai which flows through the
heart of Madurai city, the centre of Tamil culture. The word
Madurai means a “sweet city”. It is a Tamil word. As a matter of
fact, this city is the seat of Tamil culture and learning. It is also a
holy city full of temples including the famous Meenakshi
Temple. The poets have written many poems on the temples and
the river. In the poem A River the poet presents two strikingly
contrasting pictures of the river: a vivid picture of the river in
the summer season and the river in its full flow when the floods
arrive with devastating fury.

In the summer, the river is almost empty. Only a very thin

stream of water flows. So the sand ribs on the bed of the river
are visible. The stones that lie on the bed of the river also
exposed to view. On the Sandy bed could be seen the hair and
straw clogging the Watergates. The iron bars under the bridge
are in need of repair. The wet stones are all like the sleeping
crocodiles. The dry stones look like the shaven buffaloes. It is a
wonder for the poet because not too often such scenes are
described by the poets. All those symbolize the utter
wretchedness and degeneration of human condition in Hindu
culture

During the rainy season when the floods hit, the poets of past
and present observe it very anxiously. They remember the rising
of the river inch by inch from time to time. They remember how
the stone steps of the bathing place are submerged one by one.
Three village houses were swept away. The news came of a
pregnant lady and a couple of cows being washed away. Even
the new poets do not bother to write about all these things. They
look at it still in the old way as seen by the old poets. In the past,
the poets were the appreciators of the cities, temples, rivers,
streams and are indifferent to the miseries of human beings and
animals. The river dries to a trickle in every summer the “poets
sang only of the floods.” Flood is the symbol of destruction to
person and property. The poets of today still quoted the old
poets sans the relevancy of life:

“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 the blank walls even before birth.”

The above lines satirize and debunk the traditional romantic

view of the river Vaigai in Madurai, by the ancient poets. The
image of “pregnant woman” implies a fine example of two
generations, the present and the future. This is a poignant
imagery full of pathos. R. Parthasarathy verily remarks “The
relative attitudes of the old and new Tamil poets, both of whom
are exposed for their callousness to suffering, when it is so
obvious as a result of the flood.” The coloured diapers of the
twins symbolize the black people and the white people. The use
of wit, irony and humour, and dramatic imagery is distinctive of
his style. Also we may label “A River” as a tragic-comic 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. 
 

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
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
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
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
(…)
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. 

Analysis of Poem
The poem “A River” is written by A.K. Ramanujan. In this poem, the poet has compared and
contrasted the attitudes 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 dose not reflects the miseries of the human beings. He
has proved this point in the present poem.
 
The river Vaikai on whose bank the historic city of Madurai stands has been mentioned in
the poems of many poets, both past and present. The river is intimately associated with the
life and culture of the Tamil people. The peculiar thing, which appeals to the poets, is that
the river presents two different spectacles in two different season. It is completely dry in
summer and flooded in full in the rainy season.

In this poem, the poet refers to the river Vaikai which flows through the city of Madurai. The
word Madurai means a “sweet city”. It is a Tamil word. As a matter of fact, this city is the
center of Tamil culture and learning. It is also a holy city full of temples including the
famous Minakshee temple. The poets have written many poems on the temples and the
river. In the present poem, A.K. Ramanujan deals with the river.

In the poem “A River”, we get two pictures based upon two different kinds of description. In
the summer, the river is almost empty. Only a very thin stream of water flows. So the sand
ribs on the bed of the river are visible. The stones that lie on the bed of the river also
exposed to view. The portion of the river under the bridge has also been described. We get a
vivid picture of the river in the summer season.

There is also the picture of the river in the rainy season. Generally, all kinds of poets have
written about it in their poems.
During the rainy season when the floods crone the people observe it very anxiously. They
remember the rising of the river inch by inch from time to time. They remember how the
stone steps of the bathing place are submerged one by one.
They see how three village houses were damaged and carried off by the floods. They now
how two cows named Brinda and Gopi were carried away. They also know how a pregnant
woman was also drowned in the river during the flood. Both the old and new poets have
mentioned these things in their poems. But the way they have described these things in their
poems shows that they were not much alive to or sympathetic with human suffering.

They did not mention the name of the woman who was carrying twins. Before their birth,
she was drowned in the flooded river. At the time of drowning, most probably the twins
must have kicked the sides of her womb. She must have got much pain out of this. But both
the new poets and old poets did not refer to all these miseries of the woman in their poetic
creations.

This becomes ultimately clear that they are not sympathetic with suffering human beings.
They are totally callous and indifferent. This kind of attitude makes their poetry weak and
unappealing, dry and cheerless.

The tone of the poem is based on sarcasm and irony. The structure of the poem has been in
paragraphs and single lines. There are four longer verse paragraphs and a shorter one in the
beginning. There are only two single isolated lines. This kind of structural arrangement
contributes to the effect of irony. It also helps to grasp the main points clearly. Secondly, a
word can be said about the language used in the poem. It is very simple on account of which
the thought sequence of the poem is presented unmistakably and clearly.