2.8 Small Towns and the River

 ABOUT THE POEM:

This poem is taken from the collection of poems, ‘The River Poems’, published in 2004. The poem

beautifully describes the landscape and nature where river is a dominant phenomenon. The river

is given life and through this the poet has brought about liveliness in her work and has also brought

about a picturesque description about her home town ‘Pasighat’.

This poem is based on the belief of the tribal people of the North East, that even life and death

lasts for short time as the soul of the loved ones always continues to live in the natural elements

around, hence, the poet remembers death when she sees the towns. The towns, she implies, have

prospered when nature has been destroyed. The poet has expressed uneasiness at the development

in the small towns.

FIRST STANZA

In the first stanza the poet says that small town and rivers remind her of death. Death has a symbolic meaning in Dai’s poem. Life and death are part of Nature that no one can escape, this feeling is echoed ironically in the first line of the poem. In the coming lines the poet has painted an utopian landscape of her town which is calm & surrounded with trees. This landscape remains the same in summer or winter, with dust flying, the wind howling down the gorge.

SECOND STANZA

In the second stanza she speaks about death and the sorrow one undergoes with death of near and dear ones. The cycle of ‘Life & Death’ are common to all and the rituals that follow with death remain permanent.

THIRD STANZA

In the third stanza she portrays the love for Nature. Nature has always been a source of generating a sense of identity among the people of the North-East. The poet immortalizes Nature in the line ‘The river has a soul’. The river cuts through the land like an outpouring of sorrow or grief. She has further added that it wants to move towards a place of abundance.

FOURTH STANZA

The fourth stanza again speaks of the river, which knows its limit and accordingly moves ahead during the rainy or summer season. The beauty of the landscape is further enhanced through the ‘misty mountains’. The river very well understand the ‘immortality of water’.The poet is trying to tell us that water is an important source of life and the river understands this.

FIFTH STANZA

In the fifth stanza the poet is longing for the past and she becomes nostalgic about old days. She expresses her deep longing to the past days especially happiness. The desire for escape to the countryside and yearning for the happy childhood days are all more understandable. She further brings about the myth of the tribal community when dealing with death. The soul after deathmingles with Nature.

The beauty of Nature in simple aspects is expressed in the fifth stanza. Nature is home foreveryone, from the giant galaxy, Universe to tiny micro organism including the non-living rivers and mountains.

         To Sum up one can say that Nature is also constructed of unseen dreams, memories, imaginations, culture, tradition, folklore and the cycle of Life i,e. ‘Life & Death. The poet was deeply in the mysterious presence of this gigantic natural object which was undoubtedly ‘Dead’, but which seemed some ways alive and open to questions.