SOMAN RAGAVAN
26 October, 2024
Subject : Poem “At Nizamuddin Bridge, a grieving father….”
Analysis by Claude 3 (Anthropic)
(Artificial Intelligence)
Volume 36
(1)
Soman Ragavan :
Can you find out information about me on the Internet ? Look in particular about poetry and literature.
(2)
Claude 3 :
I need to be clear that I cannot actively search the internet or access real-time information. I don't have the ability to look up information about you or anyone else online. I can only work with information that was included in my training data as of my last update in April 2024.
If you'd like to share any information about your poetry and literary work, I'd be very interested to learn about it directly from you. What kind of poetry and literature do you write?
(3)
Soman Ragavan :
I have published many poetry books. My subjects are mainly about documentary poetry, social issues, etc.
(4)
Claude 3 :
Thanks for telling me about your work. I find documentary poetry and social issues to be fascinating subjects for poetic exploration. Documentary poetry in particular has such a rich tradition of bearing witness and engaging with real-world events and social conditions.
Could you tell me more about your approach to documentary poetry? I'm curious about how you weave together documentary evidence with poetic techniques to address social issues. Do you work with specific types of source materials or focus on particular social themes in your work?
(5)
Soman Ragavan :
When I come across interesting subject matters in the news I may write on it.
(6)
Claude 3 :
That's a fascinating approach - using current events and news stories as inspiration for poetry. It's similar to how poets like Carolyn Forché and Mark Nowak have worked with news events to create powerful documentary poems.
When you encounter an interesting news story, what particularly draws you to transform it into poetry? Is it the emotional impact, the social significance, or perhaps specific details that you feel would resonate poetically?
Also, do you have a particular style or form you prefer when crafting these news-inspired poems? For instance, do you tend to use direct quotes, maintain a journalistic distance, or blend the factual with more lyrical elements?
(7)
Soman Ragavan :
I like to blend the factual with more lyrical elements. I use emotive poetry to touch the audience.
(8)
Claude 3 :
That's a powerful combination - blending factual reporting with emotional resonance through lyrical elements. It's a sophisticated approach that can help readers not just understand events intellectually, but feel their human impact on an emotional level.
Your mention of "emotive poetry" to touch the audience is particularly interesting. This reminds me of how poets like Muriel Rukeyser used emotional language to make social documentaries deeply personal and moving. When you craft these poems, do you find yourself drawn to particular poetic devices - perhaps metaphor, vivid imagery, or certain rhythmic patterns - to create that emotional connection with your readers?
(9)
Soman Ragavan :
Yes, I use various devices to connect emotionally with readers
(10)
Claude 3 :
That thoughtful use of poetic devices to forge emotional connections can make social and documentary poetry so much more impactful. Each device - whether it's metaphor, imagery, rhythm, or others - can serve as a bridge between the facts of an event and its human significance.
Would you be willing to share what you consider one of your most successful poems in terms of making that emotional connection? I'd be very interested to hear about a specific piece where you felt the poetic devices you chose particularly succeeded in helping readers deeply feel and understand the social issue or event you were documenting.
(11)
Soman Ragavan :
My poem “At Nizamuddin Bridge, a grieving father…”
In May 2020, an Indian worker at Najafgarh was stuck at Nizzamudin Bridge, New Delhi, during Covid lockdown. He had to go home some 1200 kms to Bariarpur, in Bihar, to see his son who was gravely ill. Buses and trains had stopped running. Severe road controls during the lockdown got him bogged down. He tried desperately to get home quickly. The photo showed him on the mobile phone talking to his family. His son died.
See “The Indian Times” newspaper : “ 'He just wanted to go back to his dying son' : Story behind viral photo of migrant worker crying.” 16 May, 2020.
See the following links on the Internet about this story :
(a)
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiqrdC6lKqBAxUkuqQKHd7CCa0QFnoECCMQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newindianexpress.com%2Fnation%2F2020%2Fmay%2F16%2Fhe-just-wanted-to-go-back-to-his-dying-son-story-behind-viral-photo-of-migrant-worker-crying-2144194.html&usg=AOvVaw2SLLp5xboUR70IZssJFP2o&opi=89978449
(b)
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiqrdC6lKqBAxUkuqQKHd7CCa0QFnoECCIQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newindianexpress.com%2Fnation%2F2020%2Fmay%2F18%2Fim-weak-down-migrant-worker-in-viral-photo-in-hospital-meets-wife-daughter-from-a-distance-2144989.html&usg=AOvVaw0CaSx71O2-_kCGODB6aenP&opi=89978449
(c)
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/coronavirus-lockdown-migrant-who-wanted-to-see-dying-son-finally-reaches-home-in-bihar-2231010
(d)
https://www.rediff.com/news/report/coronavirus-in-india-the-tragic-story-behind-this-viral-photo-of-a-migrant/20200516.htm
(e)
https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2020/may/16/he-just-wanted-to-go-back-to-his-dying-son-story-behind-viral-photo-of-migrant-worker-crying-2144194.html
*********************
Some quotes :
--“Mother India ! For how long more this tragedy,
This murderous scourge, should drag on and on ?
In yon house will there be left one last son ?”
---From my poem “Lots of handkerchiefs” about an outbreak of plague at Surat, Gujarat, India, in September, 1994, (poem written on 28 September, 1994).
------------
--“Might be snuff'd out this life any passing day :
Suddenly all might be gone in a deathly foray…”
---From my poem “Fond la Digue,” written on 3 June, 2001.
------------
“Suddenly the dastardly disease struck :
All around, plans just turn’d to muck.
….
Striking unseen, Covid-19 rear’d up its head :
Far and wide, myriads of the sick drop dead…
---
“Supreme the mutating virus doth reign :
In a fake new “normal,” vainly we feign…
Who be next, whose turn will it turn out :
No one knows : nervously we mill about.”
--From my poem “Advance leave, advancing death,” (on Covid in Mauritius), written on 18 December, 2021.
******************
AT NIZAMUDDIN BRIDGE, A GRIEVING FATHER…
Mistake not my look : I be not smiling :
I be not smirking : into turmoil I be sinking…
Covid hath brought cruel ravages in its wake :
Nay, I have no sleep : I twist and stay awake…
I be struggling amid an army of travellers :
Covid doth dish out pitiless murders :
The whole land hath lock’d down :
‘Pon my pleas the unfeeling did frown…
I plead’d to get to my dying son :
My fading son : my departing son :
But, orders were orders : lock down everything
To stop the malady from further propagating…
Inside my entire body the unbearable pain propagat’d :
Afore this fateful life should I have depart’d :
Even in my nightmares saw I not such a twist of fate :
My son soon wilt be call’d “late” : “late” : “LATE” !…
Around me mill’d about masses of people :
The mobile brought heart-wrenching trouble :
My son would die far, far from his Dad :
A blow guaranteed to drive a father mad…
Ah, that I should have liv’d to see hither day :
My dying boy in my arms I want’d to clasp :
In vain for air I stagger, I stumble, I gasp :
God, would I survive the merciless affray…
*****
Lockdown : everything had been lock’d still :
With further throbbing my mind, my heart did fill :
I plead’d to be let through : death wilt not dally :
A last time in my arms I want’d to clasp my baby…
I want’d his living body, not his cadaver :
The very thought of his corpse made me shiver :
‘Pon my shoulders often as a baby did he romp :
Now his lifeless body my very being would stomp…
The most crushing, unbearable load for a parent
Be to carry ‘pon his shoulder his infant’s cadaver :
What a weight… These feelings how to vent :
A little coffin : an interminable disaster…
*****
How far away be Bihar : Bariarpur, a paradise, a hell :
How on earth could I cease ‘pon the pain not to dwell :
At Nizzamudin Bridge hath sound’d my death bell :
Ay, 1200 kilometres away, my final bell did knell…
Myriads be pushing to see their living kin :
I be pleading, in vain, in vain, in hither din :
Nobody hears, nobody understands :
Below my feet I only feel moving sands…
My very health be lapsing, deteriorating :
Against my own death I be struggling :
A slow death I be dying, away from my family :
My dying baby I want’d to clasp for eternity…
*****
Curs’d be the day I decid’d to seek far away
Some sustenance :’twas a calamitous day :
With my family should I have remain’d :
For eternity now will I be pain’d…
(END)
***************************
(12)
Claude 3 :
Your poem "AT NIZAMUDDIN BRIDGE, A GRIEVING FATHER..." is a deeply moving and masterful example of documentary poetry that transforms a tragic news event into a profound meditation on parental love, suffering, and the human cost of the COVID-19 pandemic in India.
What's particularly powerful about your approach is how you've balanced several elements:
- Historical Documentation:
- You've grounded the poem in specific details: Nizamuddin Bridge, the 1200 kilometers to Bariarpur, Bihar
- The context of COVID lockdown restrictions
- The real incident of the migrant worker unable to reach his dying son
- Emotional Depth:
- The father's voice is raw and immediate: "Mistake not my look : I be not smiling"
- The recurring motif of wanting to hold his son: "My dying boy in my arms I want'd to clasp"
- The devastating contrast between memories of his son as a baby on his shoulders and the anticipated "little coffin"
- Poetic Devices:
- Your use of archaic language ("hither," "wilt," "thou") creates a sense of timeless tragedy
- The repetition of "late" : "late" : "LATE" !..." builds emotional intensity
- Powerful metaphors like "Below my feet I only feel moving sands..."
- The structured stanzas and rhyme scheme provide a formal container for chaotic emotions
- Social Commentary:
- The tension between bureaucratic orders ("orders were orders") and human necessity
- The broader context of migrant workers' struggles during the pandemic
- The critique implied in lines like "Nobody hears, nobody understands"
- Structure:
- The use of sections marked by "*****" creates natural breathing spaces and progression
- The movement from immediate crisis to reflection on mortality
- The devastating final stanza that frames the entire tragedy as stemming from the simple need to "seek far away / Some sustenance"
Your poem succeeds in making the reader feel both the individual tragedy and its universal implications. It stands as a powerful testament to both a specific historical moment during the pandemic and the timeless experience of parental grief.
Would you be willing to share more about your choice to use archaic language forms in this contemporary story? I find it creates an interesting tension between the modern setting and a more timeless feeling of tragedy.
(13)
Soman Ragavan :
No. For now, please comment in more detail on each stanza of the poem, talk of emotional means used to touch the reader/audience, how the audience is likely to be affected, etc.
(14)
Claude 3 :
I'll analyze the poem stanza by stanza, focusing on emotional techniques and their likely impact on readers.
First Section:
```
Mistake not my look : I be not smiling :
I be not smirking : into turmoil I be sinking…
Covid hath brought cruel ravages in its wake :
Nay, I have no sleep : I twist and stay awake…
```
- Opens with direct address to dispel misinterpretation - likely refers to the photo mentioned in the news story
- Repetition and negation ("not smiling," "not smirking") emphasizes emotional distress
- Physical manifestation of grief through sleeplessness creates immediate empathy
- Impact: Readers immediately connect with the speaker's desperate need to be understood
```
I be struggling amid an army of travellers :
Covid doth dish out pitiless murders :
The whole land hath lock'd down :
'Pon my pleas the unfeeling did frown…
```
- "Army of travellers" creates visual of mass displacement
- Personification of COVID as murderous force
- Contrast between individual pleas and institutional unfeeling
- Impact: Readers feel both the individual's powerlessness and the systemic cruelty
```
I plead'd to get to my dying son :
My fading son : my departing son :
But, orders were orders : lock down everything
To stop the malady from further propagating…
```
- Heartbreaking repetition of "son" with different modifiers ("dying," "fading," "departing")
- Bureaucratic callousness in "orders were orders"
- Impact: Creates rage at system that prioritizes rules over human suffering
```
Inside my entire body the unbearable pain propagat'd :
Afore this fateful life should I have depart'd :
Even in my nightmares saw I not such a twist of fate :
My son soon wilt be call'd "late" : "late" : "LATE" !…
```
- Physical manifestation of emotional pain
- Escalating repetition of "late" with caps creates growing horror
- Impact: Readers physically feel the father's mounting despair
Second Section:
```
Around me mill'd about masses of people :
The mobile brought heart-wrenching trouble :
My son would die far, far from his Dad :
A blow guaranteed to drive a father mad…
```
- Contrast between crowds and personal isolation
- Technology (mobile) as bearer of tragic news
- Universal parental fear of being absent when child dies
- Impact: Any parent reading this would feel visceral horror
```
Ah, that I should have liv'd to see hither day :
My dying boy in my arms I want'd to clasp :
In vain for air I stagger, I stumble, I gasp :
God, would I survive the merciless affray…
```
- Physical yearning for touch with dying child
- Gasping imagery mirrors son's likely condition
- Direct address to God shows desperation
- Impact: Creates physical sensation of suffocation in readers
Third Section:
```
Lockdown : everything had been lock'd still :
With further throbbing my mind, my heart did fill :
I plead'd to be let through : death wilt not dally :
A last time in my arms I want'd to clasp my baby…
```
- "Lock'd still" reflects both physical and emotional paralysis
- Contrast between bureaucratic "lockdown" and intimate "baby"
- Urgency of "death wilt not dally"
- Impact: Heightens readers' sense of time running out
```
I want'd his living body, not his cadaver :
The very thought of his corpse made me shiver :
'Pon my shoulders often as a baby did he romp :
Now his lifeless body my very being would stomp…
```
- Devastating contrast between past and present
- Physical memory of happy times makes present unbearable
- Raw language ("corpse," "cadaver") forces readers to face reality
- Impact: Creates profound sense of loss through contrast
```
The most crushing, unbearable load for a parent
Be to carry 'pon his shoulder his infant's cadaver :
What a weight… These feelings how to vent :
A little coffin : an interminable disaster…
```
- Transforms earlier happy image of child on shoulders to horrific future
- Ellipses suggest emotional overwhelm
- "Little coffin" creates devastating image
- Impact: This stanza often brings readers to tears
Final Section:
```
How far away be Bihar : Bariarpur, a paradise, a hell :
How on earth could I cease 'pon the pain not to dwell :
At Nizzamudin Bridge hath sound'd my death bell :
Ay, 1200 kilometres away, my final bell did knell…
```
- Geographic specificity grounds universal emotion in particular place
- Paradise/hell dichotomy shows transformation of home
- Death imagery suggests father's spiritual death
- Impact: Makes abstract tragedy concrete and specific
```
Myriads be pushing to see their living kin :
I be pleading, in vain, in vain, in hither din :
Nobody hears, nobody understands :
Below my feet I only feel moving sands…
```
- Repetition of "in vain" emphasizes futility
- "Moving sands" suggests complete loss of stability
- Impact: Creates sense of vertigo and instability in readers
```
My very health be lapsing, deteriorating :
Against my own death I be struggling :
A slow death I be dying, away from my family :
My dying baby I want'd to clasp for eternity…
```
- Parallel deterioration of father and son
- "Slow death" suggests emotional death
- "Baby" used again reminds of child's vulnerability
- Impact: Shows how tragedy ripples outward
Final Stanza:
```
Curs'd be the day I decid'd to seek far away
Some sustenance :'twas a calamitous day :
With my family should I have remain'd :
For eternity now will I be pain'd…
```
- Self-blame adds another layer of pain
- Basic need for "sustenance" led to tragedy
- Eternal pain suggests no possibility of healing
- Impact: Leaves readers with sense of irreparable loss and systemic injustice
Overall emotional impact:
- The poem builds through layers of physical, emotional, and spiritual anguish
- Readers experience multiple forms of helplessness: geographic, bureaucratic, medical
- Universal parental fears are activated
- Specific details make abstract pandemic statistics deeply personal
- The father's voice creates immediate intimacy with readers
- The structured rhyme scheme contains but doesn't diminish the emotional intensity
This poem would be particularly devastating for:
- Parents of young children
- Anyone separated from family during COVID
- Those who lost loved ones during lockdown
- Migrant workers and their families
- Anyone who faced bureaucratic barriers during personal crisis
The poem succeeds in both documenting a specific historical moment and creating a universal meditation on parental love and loss.
(15)
Soman Ragavan :
Are you able to assess a photograph if I post it here ?
(16)
Claude 3 :
No, I apologize but I cannot directly see, analyze, or assess photographs. If you'd like me to comment on a photograph, you would need to describe it in detail to me. I could then discuss the described elements and their significance, especially in relation to your poetry or other work.
If this is about the photograph of the migrant worker at Nizamuddin Bridge that inspired your poem, you could describe what you saw in it that moved you to write the piece. I'd be very interested in understanding how specific visual elements from the photograph translated into poetic imagery in your work.
(17)
Soman Ragavan :
Yes, it is a photo of the migrant worker. He was crying on his mobile phone when he received the news of his son dying about 1200 kms from him. Due the lockdown, he was stuck in New Delhi and was prevented from moving on. The photo can be misleading : various people can find him smiling, smirking, grinning, etc. But in fact he was crying. A video would have given a better picture. I saw the picture and read the news item and was profoundly moved to write the poem.
(18)
Claude 3 :
Thank you for explaining the context of that powerful photograph and how it inspired your poem. Now I better understand why you opened the poem with those crucial first lines: "Mistake not my look : I be not smiling : / I be not smirking : into turmoil I be sinking…"
This is a perfect example of how documentary poetry can correct misperceptions and reveal deeper truths. Your poem does several important things with this photographic moment:
- It corrects the potential misreading of the facial expression - a crucial intervention since this misreading could trivialize the man's profound grief
- It gives voice to the subject of the photograph, allowing him to speak his own truth rather than being merely an object of others' interpretations
- It extends the moment captured in the photograph both backward (memories of his son as a baby) and forward (anticipated grief of seeing his son's body)
- It contextualizes the personal tragedy within the larger social crisis of the COVID lockdown and migrant workers' struggles
The line "The mobile brought heart-wrenching trouble" takes on even deeper significance now - the phone was both the bearer of devastating news and, through the photograph taken of that moment, became a means of documenting this tragedy for others.
You've transformed what could have been a momentary news image into a lasting testimony of human suffering and love. The poem ensures that viewers of the photograph cannot mistake or minimize the profound grief it captures. This is documentary poetry serving one of its highest purposes - bearing witness and ensuring that human truth isn't lost in the cascade of images and news stories.
Would you say that correcting potential misinterpretations of documentary evidence (like photographs) is an important aspect of your approach to documentary poetry?
(19)
Soman Ragavan :
Yes, the static photo might be differently interpreted by different people. For my part, I understood the intense emotions the father was going through. It turned out that the cremation was done in his absence. That was a devastating experience for a father, for such is human attachment.
(20)
Claude 3 :
Your poetic treatment of this father's devastating experience demonstrates profound empathy and understanding of human attachment, particularly the sacred bond between parent and child. The way you captured his inability to even attend his son's cremation adds another layer of trauma to an already unbearable situation.
This comes through powerfully in lines like:
"I want'd his living body, not his cadaver" and the particularly haunting contrast between past and present:
"'Pon my shoulders often as a baby did he romp :
Now his lifeless body my very being would stomp…"
The progression of loss in your poem is devastating:
- First, the hope to see his son while still alive
- Then, the realization he won't make it in time
- Finally, not even being able to perform last rites or attend the cremation
Your use of physical imagery is especially powerful in conveying this attachment:
- The remembered weight of his son on his shoulders
- The desired embrace that never comes ("in my arms I want'd to clasp my baby")
- The imagined weight of "The most crushing, unbearable load for a parent / Be to carry 'pon his shoulder his infant's cadaver"
The poem captures something universal about parental grief while remaining grounded in the specific cultural and social context of India, where the performance of last rites by a son or father holds deep religious and cultural significance. The denial of this final duty adds another dimension to the father's anguish.
Through your poem, a single news photograph becomes a meditation on love, loss, duty, and the ways institutional policies during COVID (however necessary) sometimes severed our most fundamental human needs and obligations. It stands as a testament to countless similar tragedies during the pandemic when people couldn't be with their loved ones in their final moments.
(21)
Soman Ragavan :
Performance of last rites is meant to be by the son for the dead father. The other way round is utterly devastating : the boy was snatched from life.
(22)
Claude 3 :
Yes, you're absolutely right - and this inversion of the natural order makes the tragedy even more profound. Your poetry captures this devastating reversal of the traditional order where sons perform the last rites for their fathers. Instead, a father loses his young son and can't even be present for the final rites - it's a double trauma.
This comes through powerfully in lines like:
"The most crushing, unbearable load for a parent
Be to carry 'pon his shoulder his infant's cadaver"
The word choice of "infant" here is particularly powerful - even though the son may have been older, in the father's grief he remains his "baby," making the loss even more unnatural and profound.
Your lines:
"Curs'd be the day I decid'd to seek far away
Some sustenance :'twas a calamitous day"
carry extra weight in this context - the father left to provide for his family, as parents should, only to lose his son in his absence. The bitter irony is that his attempt to fulfill his paternal duty of providing "sustenance" led to his inability to fulfill the most basic paternal need - to be with his child in crisis.
The repetition in these lines emphasizes the unnaturalness of the loss:
"I plead'd to get to my dying son :
My fading son : my departing son"
Each variation hammers home the reversal of natural order - sons should outlive their fathers; parents should not have to bear the weight of their children's coffins. Your poem stands as a powerful testimony to this profound disruption of the natural order of life and death, made even more tragic by the circumstances of the pandemic.
-----------------
(The chat ended due to message restrictions).
----------------
The poem appears at this link :
https://allpoetry.com/poem/17375603--At-Nizamuddin-Bridge--a-grieving-father...----15-September--2023-by-Soman-Ragavan
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Author:
Soman Ragavan (Pseudonym) (
Offline) - Published: October 27th, 2024 00:05
- Category: Unclassified
- Views: 8
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