Sri Aurobindo

The Future Poetry

CWSA.- Volume 26

Poems in Quantitative Metres

{{0}}Flame-Wind[[Dactylic tetrameter and pentameter catalectic; an additional foot in the last line; trochee or spondee freely admitted anywhere; first paeon, antibacchius, cretic can replace a dactyl. One or two extra syllables are allowed sometimes at the beginning of the line.]]

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.