Small Towns and Rivers Appreciation and Explanation 12th class Maharashtra State Board
Small Towns and Rivers Appreciation and Explanation 12th class Maharashtra State Board:- Dear students, Small Towns and Rivers is the poem in your Maharashtra State Board syllabus for the 12th class in the second section 2.7. In your examination, you will be asked to write an appreciation of the poem and some stanzas will come to solve the activities. This appreciation and explanation help you to solve the activities in the poem Small Towns and Rivers.
Introduction: Small Towns and Rivers Appreciation and Explanation
Poem: Small Towns and Rivers – Mamang Dai (born 1957) is a poet, novelist, journalist and former civil servant from Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, who writes in English as well as Adi language. She is also an active radio and TV journalist covering news programmes and interviews for All India Radio and Doordarshan, Itanagar.
She was a programme officer with World Wide Fund for Nature and worked with Biodiversity Hotspot Conservation Programme. She has received Padmashree Award in 2011 and Sahitya Akademi Award in 2017. Mamang Dai is a strong voice from the North East, a writer and a poet par excellence whose work has the fragrance of her land and her people.
The poem, ‘Small Towns and Rivers’ is taken from the collection of the poems, ‘The River Poems’, published in 2004. The poem describes a landscape and Nature where river is a dominant phenomenon. Through the concepts like ‘river has a soul’ and ‘river knows immortality of water,’ the poet makes us aware of the lively nature around her hometown ‘Pasighat’ and the eternity of the natural elements. She finds that even life and death are transient.
The poem is based on the belief of the tribal people from the North East, that the souls of the beloved ones always continue to dwell in the natural elements around. So she remembers death when she sees the towns. The towns, she implies, have prospered when Nature has been destroyed. The poet has expressed anxiety at the developments in the small towns.
Poem:
Small towns always remind me of death.
My hometown lies calmly amidst the trees,
it is always the same,
in summer or winter,
with the dust flying,
or the wind howling down the gorge.
Just the other day someone died.
In the dreadful silence we wept
looking at the sad wreath of tuberoses.
Life and death, life and death,
only the rituals are permanent.
The river has a soul.
In the summer it cuts through the land
like a torrent of grief. Sometimes,
sometimes, I think it holds its breath
seeking a land of fish and stars
The river has a soul.
It knows, stretching past the town,
from the first drop of rain to dry earth
and mist on the mountaintops,
the river knows
the immortality of water.
A shrine of happy pictures
marks the days of childhood.
Small towns grow with anxiety
for the future.
The dead are placed pointing west.
When the soul rises
it will walk into the golden east,
into the house of the sun.
In the cool bamboo,
restored in sunlight,
life matters, like this.
In small towns by the river
we all want to walk with the gods.
– Mamang Dai
Glossary:
wreath: an arrangement of flowers, leaves and stems fastened in a ring and used for decoration or laying on a grave or a dead body
rituals: religious or solemn ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed way
shrine: a place regarded as holy because of its associations with divinity or a sacred person or relic marked by a building or other construction
Explanation: Small Towns and Rivers Appreciation and Explanation
First Stanza:
Small towns always remind me of death.
My hometown lies calmly amidst the trees,
it is always the same,
in summer or winter,
with the dust flying,
or the wind howling down the gorge.
In the first stanza the poet tells that whenever she sees the small towns, she remembers death because of the belief of the tribal people from the North East, that the souls of the beloved ones always continue to dwell in the natural elements around. So she remembers death when she sees the towns. Further, she tells about her hometown and that her hometown lies calmly among the trees (forest). Her hometown is always the same in summer or winter and there is always dust flying around the town and the wind howling (blowing with great sound) down the gorge (the narrow pass between two rocky sides).
The second Stanza:
Just the other day someone died.
In the dreadful silence we wept
looking at the sad wreath of tuberoses.
Life and death, life and death,
only the rituals are permanent.
In the second stanza, the poet tells that just the other day someone died. It means just the other day someone died in the protest against the curfew after such that due to the insurgency. In such dreadful and fearful conditions, they silently wept (cry) and look at the sad wreath of tuberoses used for the tribute to the dead person and there they always see the death of their loved ones due to the insurgency. That’s why she says life and death, life and death, and only the rituals are permanent. The rituals are about giving tribute to the person who dies in the protest.
The third Stanza:
The river has a soul.
In the summer it cuts through the land
like a torrent of grief. Sometimes,
sometimes, I think it holds its breath
seeking a land of fish and stars
In the third stanza, the poet considers that the river has a soul because she wants we should relate feelings about how the River suffers from pain and grief because of the man’s development or in the mane of progress. Now the poet wants to tell that the river has a soul in summer it cuts through the land like a torrent of grief sometimes, sometimes I think it holds her breathtaking land of fish and stars.
The poet says the river has a soul as it is already talked about in the concept of pantheism which believes that there is consciousness there is the life force in nature. Sometimes, sometimes means whenever the river flows through town that times it holds its breath due to polluted water because of the development of the town she is looking for the life of water that is fish and she wants her water should be less polluted so that can show stars in the night with the water reflection. That is why the poet says that the river holds its breath by the passing town and she looks for less polluted water that can be survival for fish and at night stars can be reflected into the water.
The forth Stanza:
The river has a soul.
It knows, stretching past the town,
from the first drop of rain to dry earth
and mist on the mountaintops,
the river knows
the immortality of water.
In the fourth stanza, the poet repeats the line that the river has a soul because her water is immortal. The river knows that she has to leave the town behind by stretching herself and moving ahead for the accomplishment of life circle of water that is from the rainwater drop and wet the dry earth (soil) and from the mist (evaporation) to again to the mountaintops and again the raining. It knows the immortality of water. It means that in the name of progress, human being destroy nature but nature knows it is immortal.
The fifth Stanza:
A shrine of happy pictures
marks the days of childhood.
Small towns grow with anxiety
for the future.
The dead are placed pointing west.
When the soul rises
it will walk into the golden east,
into the house of the sun.
At the beginning of the fifth stanza, the poet recites the past picture of her hometown and childhood. She tells how sacred (shrine) and holy (untouched by a human being) was the nature of her hometown. She spent her childhood in happy pictures but now due to the development the small towns grow with anxiety about the future life.
Further, she tells the ritual of the Adi people. When there someone dies they put the dead person pointing west side and when the soul of the dead man rises it will walk into the golden east that into the house of the sun. it means they believe that when someone dies and the soul remains part of nature.
The Sixth Stanza:
In the cool bamboo,
restored in sunlight,
life matters, like this.
In small towns by the river
we all want to walk with the gods.
In the first three lines, she again talks about nature and the life lived by the people in her hometown. She tells that there is real life in the cool bamboo (the houses are made with bamboo) where the sun’s rays come and are restored. It’s a matter of life with nature the people live, like this. In the small towns by the river, the Adi people want to live with nature and they consider nature as God to them that is the reason why they all want to walk, live, survive, and spend their whole life with their Gods.
Appreciation: Small Towns and Rivers Appreciation and Explanation
- About the Poem, poet, and title
The poem Small Towns and River is written by the great poet Mamang Dai. She is a novelist, journalist, and former civil servant from Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, who writes in English as well as the Adi language.
The poem Small Towns and River is about the concern of nature which is destroyed by the name of the progress of the town. The object of nature that is mentioned in the poem is the river she tells how nature is suffering from the seek of development of the human being.
- Theme/summary/gist of the poem
The poem describes a landscape and Nature where the river is a dominant phenomenon. Through concepts like ‘river has a soul’ and ‘river knows immortality of water,’ the poet makes us aware of the lively nature around her hometown ‘Pasighat’ and the eternity of the natural elements.
She finds that even life and death are transient. The poem is based on the belief of the tribal people from the North East, that the souls of their beloved ones always continue to dwell in the natural elements around them. So she remembers death when she sees the towns. The towns, she implies, have prospered when Nature has been destroyed. The poet has expressed anxiety at the developments in the small towns.
- Poetic style/language, poetic devices
The poet uses simile, metaphor, Alliteration, Personification, Antithesis, and transferred epithet figures of speech to the effect of the poet’s feelings of nature. It is written in free verse form that why we can say it is a free verse poem.
- Special features/novelties/focusing elements
The poem Small Towns and Rivers is about the rituals of the Adi people from Arunachal Pradesh. The poem is based on the belief of the tribal people from the North East, that the souls of their beloved ones always continue to dwell in the natural elements around them. So she remembers death when she sees the towns. With this, we should understand the poem.
- Your opinion about the poem:
I am truly inspired by the poet’s perspective on nature and very concerned about the cause of deforestation mentioned by the poet. I too believe that in the name of progress, we are destroying nature. I understood the myths and beliefs of the Adi people from the poem. Yes, it is a matter of life like this that we should live with nature. Thus, the poem Small Towns and Rivers is great poem about nature.
You may learn about the poem 12th class : She Walks in Beauty
