“Small Towns and the River” by Mamang Dai : Rhapsody Long Question Answers Part 1
Question 1 : “Small Towns and the River” is essentially a reflective poem. Discuss.
Answer: A reflective poem explores deep thoughts and emotions about life, experiences or self through introspection, acting as a mirror for the mind to find meaning.
A reflective poem often uses imagery and symbolism to connect personal feelings with universal themes. A reflective poem prompts readers to contemplate their own inner world and gain new insight.
“Small Towns and the River” is a reflective poem because it contemplates the contrasting themes of life and death, transient nature of human life and permanence of nature, by using the river symbolising eternity and small town representing the cycle of life and death.
The poem draws attention towards the transient and sombre aspects of human life in collective mourning and community rituals – with the river’s eternal flow and vitality it ends up in an optimistic note.
Poetic devices that support Reflection:
1. Personification :
The poet has made extensive use of personification. The river is personified as a living being with a soul and an awareness. Small towns are personified as growing persons. This intensifies the contrast between its eternal nature and the human experience.
2. Juxtaposition:
The poet places the small town and the river side by side, forcing the readers to compare and contrast their symbolic meanings.
3. Imagery:
The poem is rich in visual imagery, mostly from the world of nature. The poet refers the town, situated among trees with “flying” dust and “howling” wind. Life and death are woven simultaneously in the images of the town. All these images evoke a meditative mood that encourages the reader to think deeply.
Themes of Reflection:
1. Transience Versus Permanence:
The poem reflects on the transient nature of human life against the permanence of nature. The river, personified as having a soul, is the symbol of life’s continuity. While the small town represents the temporary human experience. The poem depicts the life and death as a part of constant cycle.
2. Life and Death:
The poem presents the small town as a symbol of death, with the images of mourning and silence following the death. In contrast, the river embodies life, hope and the eternal cycle that continuous even through grief.
3. Rituals and Community:
The poem is reflection in the sense as it encourages the contemplation of the relationship between the human settlement and its natural surrounding.
This way “Small Towns and the River” is a reflective poem.
Question 2 : In what way does the poem reflect the Indian way of life and Indian mode of thinking ?
Answer: Mamang Dai is a reputed poet from north – east India. In her poem “Small Towns and the River” we find strong metaphorical expression of commonplace Indian belief with local colour. The poem heights Indian metaphysical concerns about our existence death and after life.
“Small towns always reminds me of death”, says the poet dramatically in the opening line of the poem. It hints at the major theme of the poem, that is death. The poet presents her hometown as a contrast reference in the poem, situated among trees with “flying” dust and howling wind, isolated and unchanging. Any death in it makes the people weep, suggesting the closeness of the people in the town.
Life and death are natural processes and are always changing, whereas the rituals, performed by generations, are unchanging.
The poet presents the idea of immortality but immortal is not the person, only the rituals.
“Life and death, life and death” is written in immediate repetition to highlight its cyclic nature. Life and death are natural processes, hence they are always changing. However rituals which are man – made processes, remain the same.
The poet compares the river to a “soul” that is “free” and “eternal”. She personified the river having soul, the river having soul,
“Cutting through the land;
seeking a land of fish and stars”
All the three elements of the Earth – land, underwater and the sky – implied here. Suggesting the great and unavoidable power that nature has over everything.
The river flows throughout the land beyond the small town. The river feels the first drop of rain, flows up the mountain till it reaches the mist. Throughout all of this, it doesn’t dry out, the river knows its own immortality. It exists in stark contrast to the static nature of the town, suggesting a parallel between the eternal flow of the river and the immortality of the soul – a concept that is deeply rooted in Indian spirituality.
The poet then refers to a local custom of placing the dead towards the waist in the belief that the soul will rise from the body and travel to the house of the sun (the east). The recurring motif of the east as the source of new beginnings and the reference to walking “into the house of the sun”, draw upon the spiritual iconography common in Indian traditions, where the sun is often a symbol of divine power, renewal and enlightenment.
The poet acknowledges that everybody from these small towns wish to live peacefully and happily in the afterlife. Another Indian belief of afterlife. This is the final element of immortality in the poem – rather than the soul entering a new body it travels to the heaven and walk with the Gods. This spiritual journey resonate with Indian beliefs about the afterlife and rebirth.