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

The repetition in “A River” by A.K. Ramanujan is
interesting and painfully ironic. The poem itself is Ramanujan's way of atoning for the
neglect of previous poets, and repetition is one technique Ramanujan uses to direct 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 call through the association with
temples. The second associates cities with divinity by the same means.

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

Then again, the association of cities and
temples may be intentionally ambiguous in order to evoke both
ideas. On another level, this repetition has a third layer of ambiguity. It also draws
an association between the song of poets in relation to the poet’s responsibility 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.

It is in this
repetition that Ramanujan's points are tied to together: where the divine responsibility
of the poet to the divine nature of humanity, as well as the holy nature of the cities,
are made relevant to daily life. The holy nature of cities, expressed in the association
between cities and temples, is further expressed in lines in the first stanza, such
as:

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

This final and most
persuasive repetition is where he chastises earlier poets who "only sang of the floods."
Not only did they sing only of the floods--neglecting the holiness of the city at rest
between floods--they emphasized the cows above the pregnant woman by speaking of "a
couple of cows / named Gopi and Brinda as usual." Thus, the poets violate their divine
nature by trivializing humanity and by humorously diverting attention away from the loss
of holy life belonging to the holy city:

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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.