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.
What is the setting of the poem?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Madurai
The setting of a poem is the place where its events happen. The poem opens with "In Madurai, city of temples and poets", and everything that follows, the dry river in summer and the flood, takes place in and around this city.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: A temple — Incorrect. Wrong link: temples are mentioned only to describe Madurai as a city of temples; no scene takes place in a temple.
Option 2: A flooded river — Incorrect. Wrong focus: the river is the subject of the poem, and for most of it the river is dry, not flooded; the place where it flows is Madurai.
Option 3: Three village houses — Incorrect. Too narrow: the houses are among the things the flood carries away; they are a detail, not the setting.