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Small Towns and the River by Mamang Dai

Critical Appreciation

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'Small Towns and the River' written by Mamang Dai was published in 2004 in Dai's poetry collection, 'River Poems.' Dai belongs to the Adi community of Arunachal Pradesh and voices the issues of her hometown Pasighat in many of her poems, including 'Small Towns and the River.' 

Although the poem is essentially about celebrating the immortality of nature (primarily the river in this poem) and those associated with it (tribal people), it also laments its destruction due to ever-growing small towns and political unrest. Thereby making the title of the poem apt for it. 

The most prominent theme that can be spotted in the poem is life and death. "Just the other day someone died" throws light on the tensions between natives and migrants in the North East region, which sometimes cause clashes leading to bloodshed.  When the speaker says "dreadful silence," it actually denotes the curfews that are imposed. Additionally, the temporality of human life is contrasted with that of constant rituals and nature, "life and death, life and death,/only the rituals are permanent." It refers to both the practices that the tribals follow and the river throughout the poem. The hope of the afterlife in the poem highlights the theme of spirituality. 

A modern poem, 'Small Towns and the River,' consists of four stanzas with an irregular line count. It is extremely rich in poetic devices. The poem begins and ends with paradox. Things like "hometown," "dust," and "wind" have been personified by the speaker. Simile can be spotted in the poem when the river is compared with a "torrent of grief." More literary devices like alliteration, refrain, imagery, pathetic fallacy, enjambment, personal metaphor, and periphrasis have been used in the poem. 

The poem can be seen as an attempt by Dai to preserve the memories of her hometown, ("shrine of happy pictures") Pasighat. Along with highlighting the problems of violence and destruction of nature there. One feels closer to nature's lap after reading the poem while getting more aware of the sufferings of the North East region. 


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