The poem “A River” by A.K. Ramanujan, a prolific Indian poet in English draws attention by the unconventional presentation of the theme and makes a commentary on rivers, poets and human beings with a realistic look. It deviates from the conventional river-poetry that finds always the river as a source of inspiration to write without having an eye to the other aspects associated with the river. The minute details about the river in the summer as well as when it is flooded, should not be overlooked in poetry as in both stages the river is intimately related to the human beings – be it the flow of the narrow stream being thwarted by the woman’s hair or a pregnant woman drowned with identical twins. The poet’s attitude to the river can also be compared with the realism found in Eliot’s poetry especially in The Waste Land that takes into account the two rivers - Thames and Ganga. The poem has also enough substance to be related with the German’s philosopher Heidegger’s modern views on rivers and poets. Keywords: river-poetry, unconventional, realism, Eliot, Heidegger Though an expatriate Indian living in U.S.A Ramanujan has his roots in the Indian clime and situation and so he invariably harks back to traditional Indian locales and themes in his poetry. “A River” is primarily a poem on a river probably Vaikai which flows through Madurai, a city that has been seat of Tamil culture and learning. But what distinguishes it from the Indian tradition of river – poetry is that