Sri Aurobindo

Collected Poems

SABCL - Volume 5

II. Sonnets
Early Period

To weep because a glorious sun

To weep because a glorious sun has set

Which the next morn shall gild the east again;

To mourn that mighty strengths must yield to fate

Which by that force¹ a double strength² attain;

To shrink from pain without whose friendly strife

Joy could not be, to make a terror of death

Who smiling beckons us to farther life,

And is a bridge for the persistent breath;

Despair and anguish and the tragic grief

Of dry set eyes, or such disastrous tears

As rend the heart, though meant for its relief,

And all man’s ghastly company of fears

Are born of folly that believes the³ span

Of life the limit of immortal man.⁴

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.

¹ 2009 ed. CWSA, vol.2: fall

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² 2009 ed. CWSA, vol.2: force

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³ 2009 ed. CWSA, vol.2: this

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⁴ 2009 ed. CWSA, vol.2: Of brittle life can limit immortal man.

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