Answer:
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.
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