7 Must-Read A. K. Ramanujan Poems

A.K. Ramanujan was an Indian poet born in 1929 and who died at sixty-four years old in Chicago, Illinois. Ramanujan wrote in numerous genres and in both English and Kannada. His work is well-loved for his engagement with various cultures and a wide variety of applicable themes.

He is remembered as a playwright, folklorist, and translator, who spent time studying linguistics and culture, as well as a loved professor at the University of Chicago. Ramanujan received the Sahitya Akademi Award after his death in 1993. He was also honored with the title of Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award in India.

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Time and Time Again

‘Time and Time Again’ by A.K. Ramanujan is a powerful poem about time and humanity’s attempts to understand and control existence.

This is a truly wonderful example of A.K. Ramanujan's poetry. It's well-written, easy to read, and universally relatable in its content. The poet chose to explore time, humanity's attempts to capture it, and what it's like when a clock tower stops working.

Or listen to the clocktowers

Of any old well-managed city

beating their gongs round the clock, each slightly

off the others’ time, deeper or lighter

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Obituary

‘Obituary’ by A.K. Ramanujan explores the universal toll a parent’s passing can have on a child and all the ways that their memory remains even after their death.

'Obituary' is a well-known poem by A.K. Ramanujan, an Indian poet and scholar. His poetry often focuses on personal memories, culture, and traditions. This poem is widely studied because it captures the reality of life and death with honesty and a touch of humor. While 'Obituary' is famous, some consider 'A River' to be one of his strongest works because of its deeper meaning about society.

Father, when he passed on,

left dust

on a table of papers,

left debts and daughters,

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A River

‘A River’ by A.K. Ramanujan focuses on the Madurai River, how it has been depicted by poets throughout time, and brings the suffering that exists along its banks to the reader’s attention.

In Madurai,

city of temples and poets,

who sang of cities and temples,

every summer

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Looking For A Cousin On A Swing

‘Looking For A Cousin On A Swing’ by A.K. Ramanujan is a strange and thoughtful poem in which the speaker describes a young girl’s desire alongside images of childhood.

When she was four or five

she sat on a village swing and

her cousins, six or seven,

sat himself against her;

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Love Poem for a Wife

‘Love Poem for a Wife’ by A. K. Ramanujan depicts the poet’s sleeping wife with unusual, thoughtful, and very memorable imagery and then alludes to their unity as one being.

After a night of rage that lasted days quarrels in a forest, waterfalls, exchanges, marriage, exploration of bays and places we had never known

We would never know my wife's always changing syriac face, chosen of all faces a pouting difficult child's changing in the chameleon emerald wilderness of Kerala small cousin to tall

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Of Mothers, among other things

‘Of Mothers, among other things’ by A.K. Ramanujan uses nontraditional images to depict and define the speaker’s mother as someone strong, determined, and eagle-like.

I smell upon this twisted blackbone tree

the silk and whitepetal of my mother's youth.

From her earrings three diamonds

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Small-Scale Reflections on a Great House

‘Small-Scale Reflections on a Great House’ by A. K. Ramanujan is an incredible poem that uses a house and all the objects and memories, happy and sad, it contains to speak about a family’s personal history.

Sometimes I think that nothing

that ever comes into this house

goes out. Things that come in everyday

to lose themselves among other things

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