The Collected Poems of A. K. Ramanujan

by Ramanujan, A. K.

• ISBN13: 9780195640687
• ISBN10: 0195640683
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-03-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

A.K. Ramanujan (1929-1993) was, arguably, modern India's finest English-language poet. At the time of his death he was Professor of Linguistics at the University of Chicago and a noted translator of poetry from the ancient Tamil. This volume of his collected poems, the first such collection to be published, includes poems out of the three books he published during his lifetime, and a fourth collection left unpublished at his death. Reflecting his lifelong interests in folklore, anthropology, structuralism, and biculturalism, the poems will be welcomed by all lovers of contemporary poetry.

Author Biography

The late A. K. Ramanujan was William E. Colvin Professor in the Departments of South Asian Languages and Civilizations and of Linguistics at the University of Chicago. He is the author of many books, including The Interior Landscape, The Striders and several other volumes of verse in English and Kannada.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
The Striders	p. 3
Snakes	p. 4
The Opposable Thumb	p. 6
Breaded Fish	p. 7
On a Delhi Sundial	p. 8
A Leaky Tap After a Sister's Wedding	p. 9
Two Styles in Love	p. 11
Still Life	p. 12
This Pair	p. 13
On the Very Possible Jaundice of an Unborn Daughter	p. 14
Still Another for Mother	p. 15
Lines to a Granny	p. 17
A Rather Foolish Sentiment	p. 18
Looking for a Cousin on a Swing	p. 19
I Could Have Rested	p. 20
On Memory	p. 21
Instead of a Farewell	p. 22
Self-Portrait	p. 23
The Rickshaw-Wallah	p. 24
Which Reminds Me	p. 25
Sometimes	p. 26
Chess Under Trees	p. 27
No Man Is an Island	p. 28
Anxiety	p. 29
KMnO[subscript 4] in Grandfather's Shaving Glass	p. 30
Christmas	p. 32
Conventions of Despair	p. 34
A Certain Democrat	p. 36
Towards Simplicity	p. 37
A River	p. 38
A Hindu to His Body	p. 40
Excerpts from a Father's Wisdom	p. 41
Epitaph on a Street Dog	p. 43
Images	p. 44
Still Another View of Grace	p. 45
An Image for Politics	p. 46
Case History	p. 47
One Reads	p. 48
Lac into Seal	p. 50
The Fall	p. 51
A Poem on Particulars	p. 53
It Does not Follow, but When in the Street	p. 57
Man and Woman in Camera and Out	p. 58
A Wobbly Top	p. 60
Of Mothers, among other things	p. 61
The Hindoo: he doesn't hurt a fly or a spider either	p. 62
Time and Time Again	p. 64
Love Poem for a Wife, 1	p. 65
Routine Day Sonnet	p. 68
Army Ants	p. 69
One, Two, Maybe Three, Arguments against Suicide	p. 71
One More After Reading Homer	p. 73
Some Indian Uses of History on a Rainy Day	p. 74
A Lapse of Memory	p. 76
Eyes, Ears, Noses, and a Thing about Touch	p. 77
The Hindoo: he reads his Gita and is calm at all events	p. 79
Poona Train Window	p. 80
Time to Stop	p. 82
Love Poem for a Wife, 2	p. 83
Entries for a Catalogue of Fears	p. 86
The Hindoo: the only risk	p. 90
Real Estate	p. 91
Any Cow's Horn Can Do It	p. 93
When It Happens	p. 95
Small-Scale Reflections on a Great House	p. 96
Smalltown, South India	p. 100
Some Relations	p. 101
Take Care	p. 103
The Last of the Princes	p. 105
Old Indian Belief	p. 106
History	p. 107
Compensations	p. 109
Obituary	p. 111
Prayers to Lord Murugan	p. 113
Elements of Composition	p. 121
Ecology	p. 124
No Amnesiac King	p. 126
In the Zoo	p. 128
Questions	p. 130
Fear	p. 132
Astronomer	p. 134
Death and the Good Citizen	p. 135
The Watchers	p. 137
Snakes and Ladders	p. 138
Pleasure	p. 139
A Poor Man's Riches 1	p. 141
On the Death of a Poem	p. 142
A Poor Man's Riches 2	p. 143
A Minor Sacrifice	p. 144
Alien	p. 149
Saturdays	p. 150
Zoo Gardens Revisited	p. 153
Son to Father to Son	p. 155
Drafts	p. 157
At Forty	p. 159
He too Was a Light Sleeper Once	p. 162
Highway Stripper	p. 163
Middle Age	p. 167
Extended Family	p. 169
The Difference	p. 171
Dancers in a Hospital	p. 174
Moulting	p. 176
Some People	p. 177
Connect!	p. 178
Looking and Finding	p. 179
Love Poem for a Wife and Her Trees	p. 180
Looking for the Centre	p. 184
Chicago Zen	p. 186
Waterfalls in a Bank	p. 189
Second Sight	p. 191
The Black Hen	p. 195
Foundlings in the Yukon	p. 196
Dream in an Old Language	p. 198
Shadows	p. 199
At Zero	p. 200
Salamanders	p. 202
Traces	p. 204
Fire	p. 205
Birthdays	p. 206
Fog	p. 208
One More on a Deathless Theme	p. 209
August	p. 212
Three Dreams	p. 214
It	p. 215
Not Knowing	p. 216
On Not Learning from Animals	p. 217
Blind Spots	p. 218
Love 1: what she said	p. 219
Sonnet	p. 220
Mythologies 1	p. 221
Love 2: what he said, groping	p. 222
Turning Around	p. 224
Love 3: what he said, remembering	p. 225
Mythologies 2	p. 226
Love 4: what he said, to his daughter	p. 227
Mythologies 3	p. 228
Love 5	p. 229
Contraries	p. 230
Engagement	p. 231
The Day Went Dark	p. 232
Love 6: winter	p. 233
That Tree	p. 234
Pain: trying to find a metaphor	p. 235
Fizzle	p. 236
A Devotee's Complaint	p. 237
In March	p. 238
A Meditation	p. 239
Difficulty	p. 241
Poetry and Our City	p. 242
No Fifth Man	p. 243
Bulls	p. 246
Bosnia	p. 247
A Report	p. 248
As Eichmann Said, My Brother Said	p. 250
The Guru	p. 251
A Ruler	p. 252
Poverty	p. 253
Butcher's Tao	p. 254
A Copper Vat	p. 255
Museum	p. 256
Images	p. 257
If Eyes Can See	p. 264
Elegy	p. 265
Lines	p. 267
To a Friend Far Away	p. 268
Some Monarchs and a Wish	p. 269
From Where?	p. 271
Death in Search of a Comfortable Metaphor	p. 273
Pain	p. 274
Fear No Fall	p. 275
A Note on The Black Hen and After	p. 278
Index of Titles	p. 282
Index of First Lines	p. 285
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