Sri Aurobindo

Collected Poems

CWSA.- Volume 2

Part Seven. Pondicherry, c. 1927 – 1947
Poems Published in On Quantitative Metre

Flame-Wind

A flame-wind ran from the gold of the east,

Leaped on my soul with the breath of a sevenfold noon.

Wings of the angel, gallop of the beast!

Mind and body on fire, but the heart in swoon.

O flame, thou bringest the strength of the noon,

But where are the voices of morn and the stillness of eve?

Where the pale-blue wine of the moon?

Mind and life are in flower, but the heart must grieve.

Gold in the mind and the life-flame’s red

Make of the heavens a splendour, the earth a blaze,

But the white and rose of the heart are dead.

Flame-wind, pass! I will wait for Love in the silent ways.

Earlier edition of this work: Sri Aurobindo Birth Century Library: Set in 30 volumes.- Volume 5.- Collected Poems.- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Asram, 1972.- 625 p.