Read the following poem. Answer the question :
A River
In Madurai,
city of temples and poets,
who sang of cities and temples,
every summer
a river dries to a trickle
in the sand,
baring the sand ribs,
straw and women's hair
clogging the watergates
at the rusty bars
under the bridges with patches
of repair all over them
the wet stones glistening like sleepy
crocodiles, the dry ones
shaven water-buffaloes lounging in the sun
The poet only sang of the floods
He was there for a day
when they had the floods.
People everywhere talked
of the inches rising,
of the precise number of cobbled steps
run over by the water, rising
on the bathing places,
and the way it carries of three village houses,
one pregnant woman
and a couple of cows
named Gopi and Brinda as usual.
How did other poet sing about Madurai?
(A) other poets sang of cities and temples
(B) other poets sang only of the flood
(C) other poets sang of the drought
(D) other poets sang of animals
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → (A) and (B) only
(A) other poets sang of cities and temples — Correct.
- Madurai is called a "city of temples and poets, / who sang of cities and temples".
(B) other poets sang only of the flood — Correct.
- The poem says "The poet only sang of the floods", ignoring the dry river and its everyday state.
(C) other poets sang of the drought — Incorrect.
- Wrong link: the summer dryness is described by the speaker.
- No poet is said to have sung of it.
(D) other poets sang of animals — Incorrect.
- Misread: crocodiles and buffaloes appear only as images for the stones, and the cows only as flood victims.
- No poet sings of animals.