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

Sri Aurobindo’s Critical Comments on Poetry Written in the Ashram [7]

Now if one poem you have considered “very fine” and another only “fine”, is it illogical of me to suppose that there is some difference of quality between the two? Even if I keep the poem I cannot feel that I have done my best — but the situation becomes strange if by “fine” and “very fine” you mean the same thing sometimes. Does it really amount to asking you to be “dreadfully professorial” if I beg you to let this distinction, created by “very” or some such expression, be clear?

But, again, what is wrong with fine? How is fineness a failure? — It is professorial because, when you insist on the curious distinction between very fine and “only” fine, it seems to be like an examiner giving marks, alpha class, beta class, gamma, delta class etc. Poetry can’t be marked in that way, that’s why I objected. If any of your poems is unsatisfactory, I generally say so and sharply enough too.

May 1936