Explain the repetition in the poem "A River" by A. K. Ramanujan.

Therepetition in A River by A.K. Ramanujan
is interesting and painfullyironic. The poem itself is Ramanujan's way of atoning for the
neglect ofprevious poets, and repetition is one technique Ramanujan uses todirect the readers'
attention to his objectives.

The first repetitions of
poets and temples and
cities and temples draws two associations. The
first associates poets with a divine callthrough the association with temples. The second
associates cities withdivinity by the same means.

There is
ambiguity in this second repetition because
the association may be meant to show that cities too are holybecause of their human population.
It might also be meant to show anironic association of a corrupt population with holiness.
Theassociation of cities and temples may be intentionally ambiguous inorder to evoke both ideas.


Then again, the association of cities and
temples may be intentionally ambiguous in order to evoke both ideas.
On anotherlevel, this repetition has a third layer of ambiguity. It also draws anassociation
between the song of poets in relation to the poetsresponsibility to divine humanity in the
cities.

The repetitions of sand, flood, and
rising serve several purposes. While rising
and flood introduce the subject matter that inspired Ramanujan's
poetic contemplations (and protest), sand
foreshadows the upcoming discussion of the human victims of the flood.

The
most emotional and persuasive repetition is that concerning the

three village houses,
one pregnant woman
and a couple of
cows
named Gopi and Brinda as usual.

Itis in
this repetition that Ramanujan's points are tied to together:where the divine responsibility of
the poet to the divine nature ofhumanity, as well as the holy nature of the cities, are made
relevant todaily life. The holy nature of cities, expressed in the associationbetween cities and
temples, is further expressed in lines in the firststanza, such as:

the wet stones glistening like sleepy
crocodiles, the dry ones
shaven
water-buffaloes lounging in the sun

Thisfinal and most
persuasive repetition is where he chastises earlierpoets who "only sang of the
floods." Not only did they sing only of thefloods--neglecting the holiness of the city at
rest between floods--theyemphasized the cows above the pregnant woman by speaking of "a
coupleof cows / named Gopi and Brinda as usual." Thus, the poets violate theirdivine nature
by trivializing humanity and by humorously divertingattention away from the loss of holy life
belonging to the holy city:

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 blank walls
even
before birth.
[...]
... identical twins
with no moles on their
bodies,
with different coloured diapers
to tell them apart.