who are the other epic writers in English? Kindly mention all the epic writers in all the languages – it is good to know them, at least.Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume 2. 1937
Letter ID: 1929
Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar
May 4, 1937
[The first 3 questions were put by J:]
Kindly say who are the epic writers. I want to read them all. Is your “Love and Death” an epic, and “Urvasie”, and “Baji Prabhou”?
Love and Death is epic in long passages. Urvasie is written on the epic model. Baji Prabhou is not epic in style or rhythm.
Are your 12 recent poems1 too in epic style?
No, they are lyrical, though sometimes there may come in an epic elevation.
Will “Paradise Lost” and “Paradise Regained” help? And who are the other epic writers in English? Kindly mention all the epic writers in all the languages – it is good to know them, at least.
“Paradise Lost”, yes. In the other Milton’s fire had dimmed. In English Paradise Lost and Keats’ Hyperion (unfinished) are the two chief epics. In Sanskrit Mahabharat, Ramayan, Kalidasa’s Kumar Sambhav, Bharavi’s Kiratarjuniya. In Bengali Meghnadbodh. In Italian Dante’s Divine Comedy and Tasso’s (I have forgotten the name for the moment2) are in the epic cast. In Greek of course Homer, in Latin Virgil. There are other poems which attempt the epic style, but are not among the masterpieces. There are also primitive epics in German and Finnish (Nibelungenlied, Kalevala) –
Our vaccination list is ready. Will send a duplicate to Mother tomorrow, before submitting it to the hospital.
You will send a copy to Pavitra, for he will have to write to Valle as it was to him that their original letter came.
S has been complaining of her extreme weakness, pains etc. which are so great that she is on her way to death – her ribs can be counted, her stomach etc. have become microscopic; her pains terrible; often she can hardly get up from her bed in the morning; often her breath comes gaspingly through weakness. She says she took medicines from you for eight long days without any change; when she told you, you said “It’s the only medicine I have”, so she dropped treatment. On my telling her that she may have to go to Bombay side for treatment, she says she will prefer to die near to the Mother – not a comfortable prospect for the Mother, but she may live if we give her one cup more milk a day and butter – which have been accorded. Ah yes, before the demand for butter, she wrote that she can’t eat – she feels too ill.
It is true that Mother finds her looking very down and seedy. Any enlightenment from Science?
I send you the poem again. How do you find the effect, on the whole? I have very little credit though, this time.
... I think between us – putting aside all false modesty – we have made a rather splendaceous superrealist poem out of your surrealist affair.
Still, something, what?
Certainly. Mine are only the finishing touches.
1 Transformation, Nirvana, The Other Earths, The Bird of Fire, Trance, Shiva, the Inconscient Creator, The Life Heavens, Jivanmukta, In Horis Aeternum, Thought the Paraclete, Moon of Two Hemispheres, Rose of God. SABCL, vol. 5 (Collected Poems).
2 Jerusalem Liberated