Introduction to the Poem:
The poem entitled The Striders is a short poem of fifteen lines. It was after the title of this poem that Ramanujan gave his first volume of the poems the title The Striders. The volume of the poem was published in 1966. This poem has been immensely popular, especially in Chicago. In this poem, the poet describes the behaviour of the particular water - insect which is found in New England. It also shows the poet's observant nature and his interest in the animal and insect world. The poet draws an image of water bugs who sit on a ripple of water.
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| The Striders, Summary and Critical Appreciation |
The poet says that these water bugs are capable of walking on water like prophets. At the spiritual level, the poem fuses the earthly and the ethereal, the real and the spiritual. At the mythical level, the poem may be associated with Hindu myth. To compare a small insect to a prophet shows the poet's sense of humour at work. If Moses can walk upon water, this insect treats the surface of water as its natural element and perches on it lightly, and without any sense of danger. The poem represents some of the outstanding qualities of Ramanujan's poetic art.
Summary of the Poem:
The poet describes the behaviour of the water bug in a very beautiful and realistic manner. He regards it an embodiment of spirituality and supernal powers. The poet thinks that the nature, behaviour and activities of the water bug show that it has been endowed with supernatural power. The poet has observed about this insect deeply, so he presents his clear observation. If one comes to see this very little water bug, one can see it moving on the land or surface of water very easily in search of its food. It legs are longer and thinner than other water bugs. Its eyes are in round shape. They are bulging. They look like the small bubbles of water floating on the surface of water. No movement can be seen in its eyes. They always remain in a bulging and static state. It can be see sitting with great ease on the rippling waves of the stream of water with its very thin hair like dry (bloodless) legs. If its weight is considered, it seems as if it had no weight of its body and other parts. But its easiness on the land of water and its glide like movement is worth - praising. In fact its behaviour is wonderful. In fact it has an extraordinary capability to maintain its balance on the land of water.
The poet observes that not only the great prophet, who is endowed with supernatural, supernal and divine powers, can move on the surface of water with great ease, but also the humble water - bug can sit, rest and move on the surface of water. Here the poet passes a satire on those prophets who claim to perform many wonderful miracles and attract the attention of many people towards them. By performing miracles whether it may be trick or a fake show, they gather a huge crowd of their disciples who adore them. Such prophets are depicted in mythological books. The water - bug maintains its easeness whether it sits and moves on the land or on the surface of water. If this bug is minutely observed, its behaviour, nature and activity resemble to the prophets who have achieved great supernal powers. In picturing this water - bug which is an amphibian, Ramanujan has united the insect with human and the divine world. When the prophets or saints are lost in contemplation, they are completely drowned in divinity of God. In other way they dive in the ocean of divinity, similarly the water - bug while sitting or resting on the surface of water stream, drowns in the sky reflected in the water. It is the merging of the real with the spiritual. Here again the poet creates humour when he compares the prophet's or saint's drowning in the ocean of divinity during his contemplation to the water - bug's drowning in the sky reflected in the water.
Critical Appreciation of the Poem:
Introduction:
The poem entitled The Striders is a short, brilliant and very popular poem. This poem has been immensely popular. “Strider” is the name of a water insect and this poem describes the behaviour of that particular water - insect. It was after the title of this poem that Ramanujan gave his first volume of poems the title The Striders. This poem shows Ramanujan's observant nature and his interest in the animal world. In it, he makes a clear and minute observation of the nature and behaviour of the water - bug. The poem brings to us the poet's philosophical and humorous attitude. He presents the water - bug as an embodiment of genius and spiritual.
Thought - Content:
After making an absolute observation, the poet depicts the water - bug in a very beautiful and realistic manner. He regards it an embodiment of spirituality and supernal powers. It has thin legs like hair and two bulging eyes like the bubbles of water. It sits, moves and rests on the surface of water with great ease. It has a wonderful capability to maintain its balance on the land of water. The poet compares its great ease on the surface of water to the prophets who perform the miracle of walking on the surface of water. The perfect case with which the water - bug perches on the surface of water, is native to its genius and is comparable to the supernatural powers of prophets walking on water.
Element of Humour:
The poet says that not only the great prophet who is endowed with supernatural, supernal and divine powers, can move on the surface of water with great ease, but also the humble water - bug can sit, rest and move on the surface of water. The idea here is that even water - bug can perform this miracle because it too treats the surface of the water as being no obstacle in the way of its activities. Here, the poet, of course, creates humour.
Spiritual and Mythical Levels:
At the spiritual level , the poem fuses the earthly and the ethereal , the real and the spiritual . The polarity of motion and fixity is clear. The perching water - bug gives us the idea of fixity, whereas the rippling water suggests movement. Like prophets these bugs sit on divine light and drown in the sky reflected in the water. This suggests the merging of the real with the spiritual. At the mythical level, the poem may be associated with the Hindu myth of lord Vishnu who is the creator of the world and who stands still in the flux, as His devotees dive into the depths of His being.
The Use of Imagery:
Ramanujan's images are precise, accurate, real and highly suggestive. His imagery creates vivid visual effects. He prefers the concrete, the picturesque and the precise as against the general, the vague and the abstract. His description of the striders is picturesque. The motion, the habits and physiognomy of the insect is portrayed in precise, pointed diction:
“And search
for certain thin—
stemmed, bubble - eyed water bugs .
See them perch
on dry capillary legs
weightless
on the ripple skin
of a stream.”
In this image of the striders, a kind of New England water - bugs, the poet has precisely portrayed the figure of the object with a vivid sense of its distinctive quality. The picture of water-bugs with ‘bubble eyes’ perching ‘weightless on the ripple skin of a stream’ is sculpturesque. The image also assumes a spiritual dimension. The water - bug sitting on a landslide of lights and drowning ‘eye - deep / into its tiny strip / of sky’ is compared with the super - human powers of prophets walking on water. How skilfully the insect has been united with the divine and the human worlds:
“No, not only prophets
walk on water. This bug sits
on a landslide of lights
and drowns eye—
deep into its tiny strip
of sky.”
Style and Language:
A. K. Ramanujan is a great and gifted artist. He has assiduously polished and refined his poetic style. He has assigned a conspicuous place to the choice of words in poetry and to linguistic excellence. Ramanujan uses simple, everyday words. He uses apt and meaningful words. His diction is conspicuous for epigrammatic terseness, felicity of expression and classical simplicity and austerity. He skilfully employs an oblique style, full of private insights. It helps him to juxtapose disparate elements:
“No, not only prophets
walk on water. This bug sits
on a landslide of lights
and drowns eye—
deep
into its tiny strip
of sky.”
The vivid and picturesque adds to the beauty and precision of style. There are highly evocative and suggestive phrases, as ‘thin - stemmed, bubble – eyed’, ‘capillary legs’, ‘a landslide of lights’ and ‘thin strip of sky’.
