The Mother Reads Selections from Savitri by Sri Aurobindo
Book 2. The Book Of The Traveller Of The Worlds
Canto 7. The Descent into Night
A charm and sweetness sudden and formidable,
Faces that raised alluring lips and eyes
Approached him armed with beauty like a snare,
But hid a fatal meaning in each line
And could in a moment dangerously change.
But he alone discerned that screened attack.
[pp. 205-206]
* * *
A Power that laughed at the mischief of the world,
An irony that joined the world’s contraries
And flung them into each other’s arms to strive,
Put a sardonic rictus on God’s face.
[p. 207]
* * *
Only were safe who kept God in their hearts:
Courage their armour, faith their sword, they must walk,
The hand ready to smite, the eye to scout,
Casting a javelin regard in front,
Heroes and soldiers of the army of Light.
[p. 211]
* * *
Haled by a serpent-force from its warm home
And dragged to extinction in blank vacancy
Life clung to its seat with cords of gasping breath;
Lapped was his body by a tenebrous tongue.
[p. 218]
* * *
He mastered the tides of Nature with a look:
He met with his bare spirit naked Hell.
[p. 219]End of Book 2 Canto 7
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