Sri Aurobindo
Letters on Poetry and Art
SABCL - Volume 27
Part 2. On His Own and Others’ Poetry
Section 1. On His Poetry and Poetic Method
On Savitri
On the Inspiration and Writing of the Poem [6]
Why shouldn’t every line be final? ... Do you ever
have to pay attention to technique? That is, when revising do you think whether
you have varied the pauses and the rhythm-modulations and the sentence-lengths?
I suppose that if the expression satisfies you it automatically means a
perfection of technique also, without your having to keep a special eye on it.
Every line was not sure of being final because three or
four were newly written in the rebuilding, and I can never be certain of newly
written stuff (I mean in this Savitri) until I have looked at it again
after an interval. Apart from the quality of new lines, there is the combination
with others in the whole which I have modified more than anything else in my
past revisions....
I don’t think about the technique because thinking is
no longer in my line. But I see and feel first when the lines are coming through
and afterwards in revision of the work. I don’t bother about details while
writing, because that would only hamper the inspiration. I let it come through
without interference; only pausing if there is an obvious inadequacy felt, in
which case I conclude that it is a wrong inspiration or inferior level that has
cut across the communication. If the inspiration is the right one, then I have
not to bother about the technique then or afterwards, for there comes through
the perfect line with the perfect rhythm inextricably intertwined or rather
fused into an inseparable and single unity; if there is anything wrong with the
expression that carries with it an imperfection in the rhythm, if there is a
flaw in the rhythm, the expression also does not carry its full weight, is not
absolutely inevitable. If on the other hand the inspiration is not throughout
the right one, then there is an after examination and recasting of part or
whole. The things 
I lay most stress on then are
whether each line in itself is the inevitable thing not only as a whole but in
each word; whether there is the right distribution of sentence lengths (an
immensely important thing in this kind of blank verse); whether the lines are in
their right place, for all the lines may be perfect, but they may not combine
perfectly together — bridges may be needed, alterations of position so as to
create the right development and perspective etc., etc. Pauses hardly exist in
this kind of blank verse; variations of rhythm as between the lines, of caesura,
of the distribution of long and short, clipped and open syllables, manifold
combinations of vowel and consonant sounds, alliteration, assonances, etc.,
distribution into one line, two line, three or four or five line, many line
sentences, care to make each line tell by itself in its own mass and force and
at the same time form a harmonious whole sentence — these are the important
things. But all that is usually taken care of by the inspiration itself, for as
I know and have the habit of the technique, the inspiration provides what I want
according to standing orders. If there is a defect I appeal to headquarters till
a proper version comes along or the defect is removed by a word or phrase
substitute that flashes — with the necessary sound and sense. These things are
not done by thinking or seeking for the right thing — the two agents are sight
and call. Also feeling — the solar plexus has to be satisfied and, until it is,
revision after revision has to continue. I may add that the technique does not
go by any set mental rule — for the object is not perfect technical elegance
according to precept, but sound-significance filling out word-significance. If
that can be done by breaking rules, well, so much the worse for the rule.
30 October 1936