Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Poetry and Art

SABCL - Volume 27

Part 2. On His Own and Others’ Poetry
Section 3. Practical Guidance for Aspiring Writers
Guidance in Writing Poetry

Lyric, Narrative, Epic [7]

This afternoon, in a kind of sleep, I read a whole passage of an epic in English. All fled like vapour on waking up. I caught only this:

Need we | our mor|tal blood....

This is only part of a line, three feet — the blank verse line is five feet. As far as it goes, it is quite correct. Full lines could be something like this:

Need we | our mor|tal blood | to sprink|le earth

That man | may grow | by the | red sac|rifice|.

A foot in the pentameter blank verse is of two syllables; normally the accent is on the second syllable of the foot, but for variety’s sake it can fall on the first. e.g. Nee d we|. Or there can be a foot without stress e.g. by the | followed sometimes by a foot of double stress as re d sac|rifice. Sometimes an anapaest, very light, can be put in in place of the 2 syllable foot, e.g. In the sud|den fall | and tra|gic end | of things|. Other variations there can be, but they are more rare.

5 May 1937