Source - Death & Dying
“A poem so Indian in its nature.”
Introduction
Poem’s Name - Obituary
Author’s Name - A.K. Ramanujan
Genre - Obituary, Poetry
Language - English
Synopsis
‘Obituary’ is written in a quite ironic format by Ramanujan. The word itself means a notice or announcement of someone’s death in a newspaper with a brief biography. Ramanujan writes this poem on behalf of his father’s death.
In the poem the poet describes how his father’s death has affected the family and what the father had achieved in his life.
The poet also talks about the implications that he has to face after his father’s death, probably being the eldest son of the house.
About the Author
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| Source - Business Line |
Poet, translator, folklorist, and philologist A.K. Ramanujan was born in Mysore, India. Ramanujan wrote in both English and Kannada, and his poetry is known for its thematic and formal engagement with modernist transnationalism. Issues such as hybridity and transculturation figure prominently.
As a scholar, he also contributed to linguistics and cultural studies. He was awarded the title Padma Shri in 1976 for his context sensitive and complex understanding of situations that he transformed into folklore and poems. He was also awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1999 for his book ‘The Collected Poems’.
The Book - The Collected Poems
Source - Amazon
The book provides a massive and alluding read that includes half poems based on his friends, wife and daughter, who have also contributed briefly to the understanding of this book to readers.
The book very well portrays Ramanujan’s interest towards folklore, structuralism, anthropology and biculturalism. He provided an intellectually adventurous and non egoistic theme to his poems for readers to be inspired by.
His creative and critical writing skills is why the poems have been widely accepted by the domestic population. Although not being a very famous poet, the realities he talks about in his poems make it easy for readers to interpret and relate to.
The Poem Structure
Obituary is an eight stanza poem separated into sets of seven lines each and makes use of a lot of enjambment. The lines in the poem do not follow any specific rhyme scheme, however, Ramanujan makes use of half rhymes, also called slant rhymes in the poem.
The author makes use of the poetic devices like repetition of assonance and consonance throughout the poem. Alliteration as another poetic device has also been found to be used in ‘Obituary’.
Plot
“Father, when he passed on,
left dust
on a table of papers,...”
The poem begins with the speaker telling the readers that his father has expired and that when he did, he left behind a lot, a lot of unfinished tasks. Some are useless while some are meaningless, like dust and old papers.
“Being the burning type,
he burned properly
at the cremation…”
The speaker also mentions how some memories and rituals had to be done but that they would last a lifetime. He also goes on to describe how his father was cremated while mentioning the locations.
Source - WCTC Library
“But someone told me
he got two lines
in an inside column
of a Madras newspaper
sold by the kilo
exactly four weeks later
to street hawkers..”
The poem also tells us how the father apparently left an obituary about him in a local newspaper and now the son is searching the most popular papers with the hope to see it, yet another thing his father left behind.
Though the speaker through his tone or choice of words may come forward as someone who has so many responsibilities now that his father has died and the fact that he has left behind so many things undone, which is why the speaker may sound agitated.
“And he left us
a changed mother
and more than
one annual ritual.”
But as the poem ends we are shown his sad demise ending with the emphasis on the importance of the rituals that came from his father, that now are established parts of family life.
Personal Verdict in One Sentence
The poem also makes use of humour that the poet has emphasized a lot in the poem. It helps to lighten the mood for readers while depicting that the speaker is not intending to speak too heavily about grief and loss of his father.
The Bottom Line
Obituary by A.K. Ramanujan is one of the most read poems by Indian readers of all times. His poetry resembles Indian roots, quest, culture, rituals and upbringing most of the time, with some reflecting the Western and Christian influence.
His poetry perfectly embodies the idea of Indian-ness and Indian English Poetry that will certainly delight readers entering his subconscious or unconscious. Hence, to me, his poetic collections stand at a higher position than other Indian poets in the realm of folklore and anthropology.
My ratings for the poem - 3 on 5
You may read the poem here - Obituary
Written By - Umme-Aiman
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