Sri Aurobindo

Collected Poems

SABCL - Volume 5

II. Sonnets
1930–1950

Evolution [1]

I passed into a lucent still abode

And saw as in a mirror crystalline

An ancient Force ascending serpentine

The unhasting spirals of the aeonic road.

Earth was a cradle for the arriving god

And man but a half-dark half-luminous sign

Of the transition of the veiled Divine

From Matter’s sleep and the tormented load

Of ignorant life and death to the Spirit’s light.

Mind liberated swam Light’s ocean vast,

And life escaped from its grey tortured line;

I saw Matter illumining its parent Night.

The soul could feel into infinity cast

Timeless God-bliss the heart incarnadine.

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.