Sri Aurobindo

Collected Poems

SABCL - Volume 5

I. Short Poems
1890-1900

The Island Grave

Ocean is there and evening; the slow moan

Of the blue waves that like a shaken robe

Two heard together once, one hears alone.

Now gliding white and hushed towards our globe

Keen January with cold eyes and clear

And snowdrops pendent in each frosty lobe

Ushers the firstborn of the radiant year.

Haply his feet that grind the breaking mould,

May brush the dead grass on thy secret bier,

Haply his joyless fingers wan and cold

Caress the ruined masses of thy hair,

Pale child of winter, dead ere youth was old.

Art thou so desolate in that bitter air

That even his breath feels warm upon thy face?

Ah, till the daffodil is born, forbear,

And I will meet thee in that lonely place.

Then the grey dawn shall end my hateful days

And death admit me to the silent ways.

Later edition of this work: The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo.- Set in 37 volumes.- Volume 2.- Collected Poems.- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2009.- 751 p.