Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Poetry and Art

SABCL - Volume 27

Part 2. On His Own and Others’ Poetry
Section 2. On Poets and Poetry
Comments on Some Examples of Western Poetry (up to 1900)

Heredia

Comme un vol de gerfauts hors du charnier natal,

Fatigués de porter leurs misères hautaines,

De Palos de Moguer, routiers et capitaines

Partaient, ivres d’un rêve héroïque et brutal.

Ils allaient conquérir le fabuleux métal

Que Cipango mûrit dans ses mines lointaines,

Et les vents alizés inclinaient leurs antennes

Aux bords mystérieux du monde Occidental.

Chaque soir, espérant des lendemains épiques,

L’azur phosphorescent de la mer des Tropiques

Enchantait leur sommeil d’un mirage doré;

Ou penchés à l’avant des blanches caravelles,

Ils regardaient monter en un ciel ignoré

Du fond de l’Océan des étoiles nouvelles.

Many Frenchmen regard Heredia’s “Les Conquérants” as the eighth wonder of the world. Flecker says of Heredia that he was “the most perfect poet that ever lived (Horace not in it)”.

I cannot say that I find Heredia’s sonnet to be either an eighth wonder or any wonder. Heredia was a careful workman in word and rhythm and from that point of view the sonnet is faultless. If that is all that is needed for perfection, it is perfect. But otherwise, except for the image in the first two lines and the vigour of the fourth, I find it empty: Horace, at least, was seldom that. These extravagant estimates of minor poets are only the self-assertive challenge put forth by a personal preference they have.

24 June 1932