the river poem phraphrasing
Answers
Explanation:
I think that assessing the role of poets in “The River” might be a good starting point to paraphrase its meaning. Ramunajan’s poem calls out the poets who have a tendency to glorify or engage in nostalgia as opposed to an honest and open discussion of realities in their work. In the poem, the glory of the river is something that modern poets end up regaling. Yet, the speaker is quick to point out that little in way of the destructive elements of the river is mentioned. The rising of the water is not something that is discussed in terms of how the pregnant woman died or how other individuals suffered as a result of its flooding. I think that this might be a part of a critical paraphrasing of the poem in that poets who indulge in what is good, deifying it, lose sight of how there is an element of reality that is missing in their work. The first lines of the last stanza might go far in this as suggesting that “the river has enough water to be poetic,” but also indicating in the stanza that a more realistic conception of poetry about “the river” must present itself. In this light, the poem suggests that poetry is an endeavor where multiple points of reference have to be integrated.