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
General Comments on. Some Criticisms of the Poem [5]
In the two passages ending with the same word
{{0}}“alone”[[There knowing herself by her own termless self,(((1)))Wisdom
supernal, wordless, absolute(((1)))Sat uncompanioned in the eternal Calm,(((1)))All-seeing,
motionless, sovereign and alone.(((1)))[and, after 61 lines:](((1)))The
superconscient realms of motionless Peace(((1)))Where judgment ceases and
the world is mute(((1)))And the Unconceived lies pathless and alone. [pp.
32, 33 – 34]]] I think that there is sufficient space between them and
neither ear nor mind need be offended. The word “sole”, I think, would flatten
the line too much and the word “aloof” would here have no atmosphere and it
would not express the idea. It is not distance and aloofness that has to be
stressed but uncompanioned solitude.
The line you object to
on account of forced rhythm “in a triumph of fire” has not been so arranged
through negligence. It was very deliberately done and deliberately maintained.
If it were altered the whole effect of rhythmic meaning and suggestion which I
intended would be lost and the alterations you suggest would make a good line
perhaps but with an ordinary and inexpressive rhythm. Obviously it is not a
“natural” rhythm, but there is no objection to its being forced when it is a
forcible and violent action that has to be suggested. The rhythm cannot be
called artificial, for that would mean something not true and genuine or
significant but only patched up and insincere: the rhythm here is a turn of art
and not a manufacture. The scansion is iamb, reversed spondee, pyrrhic, trochee,
iamb. By reversed spondee I mean a foot with the first syllable long and highly
stressed and the second stressed but short or with a less heavy ictus. In the
ordinary spondee the greater ictus is on the second syllable while there are
equal spondees with two heavy stresses, e.g. “vast space” or in such a line as
He has seized life in his resistless {{0}}hands.[[This
line does not form part of the final version of Savitri. — Ed.]]
In the first part of the line the rhythm is appropriate
to the violent breaking in of the truth while in the second half it expresses a
high exultation and exaltation in the inrush. This is brought out by the two
long and highly stressed vowels in the first syllable of “triumph” and in the
word “fire” (which in the elocution of the line have to be given their full
force), coming after a pyrrhic with two short syllables between them. If one
slurs over the slightly weighted short syllable in “triumph” where the
concluding consonants exercise a certain check and delay in the voice, one could
turn this half line into a very clumsy double anapaest, the first a glide and
the second a stumble; this would be bad elocution and contrary to the natural
movement of the words.
I have wholly failed to feel the prosaic flatness of
which you accuse the line
All he had been and all
that now he was. [cf. p. 307]
No doubt, the diction is extremely simple, direct and
unadorned but that can be said of numberless good lines in poetry and even of
some great lines. If there is style, if there is a balanced rhythm (rhyme is not
necessary) and a balanced language and significance (for these two elements
combined always create a good style), and if the line or the passage in which it
occurs has some elevation or profundity or other poetic quality in the idea
which it expresses, then there cannot be any flatness nor can any such line or
passage be set aside as prosaic.
By the way, I think you said in a letter that in the
line
Our prostrate soil bore the awakening light [cf.
p. 5]
“soil” was an error for “soul”. But “soil” is correct;
for I am describing the revealing light falling upon the lower levels of the
earth, not on the soul. No doubt, the whole thing is symbolic, but the symbol
has to be kept in front and the thing symbolised has to be concealed or only
peep out from behind, it cannot come openly into the front and push aside the
symbol.
As to the title of the three Cantos about the Yoga of
the {{0}}King,[[Book I. Canto 3: The Yoga of the King: The Yoga of the Soul’s
Release.(((1)))Canto 4: The Secret Knowledge.(((1)))Canto 5: The
Yoga of the King: The Yoga of the Spirit’s Freedom and Greatness.]] I
intended the repetition of the word “Yoga” to bring out and emphasise the fact
that this part of Aswapati’s spiritual development consisted of two yogic
movements, one a psycho-spiritual transformation and the other, a greater
spiritual transformation with an ascent to a supreme power. The omission which
you suggest would destroy this significance and leave only something more
abstract. In the second of these three Cantos there is a pause between the two
movements and a description of the secret knowledge to which he is led and of
which the results are described in the last Canto, but there is no description
of the Yoga itself or of the steps by which this knowledge came. That is only
indicated, not narrated; so to bring in “The Yoga of the King” as the title of
this Canto would not be very apposite. 
Aswapati’s
Yoga falls into three parts. First, he is achieving his own spiritual
self-fulfilment as an individual and this is described as the Yoga of the King.
Next, he makes the ascent as a typical representative of the race to win the
possibility of discovery and possession of all the planes of consciousness and
this is described in the second book: but this too is as yet only an individual
victory. Finally, he aspires no longer for himself but for all, for a universal
realisation and new creation. That is described in the Book of the Divine
Mother.
As to the Nirvana poem, I have said that the poem
announces no metaphysical philosophy but is only the description of a spiritual
experience. So how can any metaphysics be derived from it true or false — if you
mean truly or falsely derived? If you want to ask whether the metaphysics you
derived is in itself true or false, well, I don’t remember what it was; so I
would have to read your letter again before I could answer, and for that you may
have to wait for some time.
As regards the other points you have drawn attention
to, they have all been set right in the original version but your typescript
seems to have been sent without making these changes. The “bird” passage has
been changed thus:
As might a soul fly like a hunted bird,
Escaping with tired wings from a world of storms,
And a quiet reach like a remembered breast,
In a haven of safety and splendid soft repose
One could drink life back in streams of honey-fire,
Recover the lost habit of happiness,
Feel her bright nature’s glorious ambience etc. etc. [p.
15]
29 October 1946