A River by AK Ramunjan
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Answer:
Poetic Techniques in A River
Ramanujan also uses a variety of poetic techniques, such as alliteration, assonance, consonance, and enjambment to unify the text. Alliteration occurs when words are used in succession, or at least appear close together, and begin with the same letter. Assonance and consonance are other forms of repetition in which a vowel or consonant sound is used multiple times, in words which close in proximity. A few of these are noted with the body of the text.
Enjambment is another important technique. This occurs when a line is cut off before its natural stopping point. It forces a reader down to the next line, and the next, quickly. One is forced to move forward in order to comfortably resolve a phrase or sentence. A great example is between lines four and five in which a reader has to move down a line to find out what summer brings.
Explanation:
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.