{"id":1429,"date":"2013-07-13T01:34:45","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1429"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:34:45","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:34:45","slug":"92-notes-vol-05-collected-poems-volume-05","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/05-collected-poems-volume-05\/92-notes-vol-05-collected-poems-volume-05","title":{"rendered":"-92_Notes.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n


\nNOTES
\n\t\t<\/font><\/span><\/b>
\nTHE BIRD OF FIRE AND T<\/font><\/span>RANCE<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n
\n
\n

\n
\nT<\/font><\/b>hese two poems are in the nature of metrical experiments. The first is a kind
\nof compromise between the stress system and the foot measure. The stanza is of four
\nlines, alternately of twelve and ten stresses. The second and fourth line in
\neach stanza can be read as a ten-foot line of mixed iambs and anapaests<\/span>, the first and third, though a similar system
\nsubject to replacement of a foot anywhere by a single-syllable half-foot could
\nbe applied, are still mainly readable by stresses.<\/p>\n

The other poem is an experiment in the use of quantitative foot measures. It is
\na four-line stanza reading alternately<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n˘ \u00af ˘ | ˘
\n\u00af ˘ | \u00af ˘ \u00af |
\n\u00af \u00af<\/span> ˘ | ˘ \u00af \u00af<\/span> | |
\nand \u00af ˘ \u00af | ˘ \u00af
\n˘ | ˘ ˘<\/span> \u00af |<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIt could indeed be read otherwise, in several
\nways, but read in the ordinary way it would lose all lyrical quality and the
\nsoul of its rhythm.<\/p>\n

The Bird of Fire is the living vehicle of the gold fire of the Divine Light and
\nthe white fire of the Divine Tapas<\/span> and the crimson
\nfire of Divine Love – and everything else of the Divine Consciousness.<\/p>\n

SHIVA – THE INCONSCIENT CREATOR<\/p>\n

The quantitative metre of Trance<\/i> is suited only for a very brief lyrical
\npoem. For longer poems I have sought to use it as a base but to liberate it by
\nthe introduction of an ample number of modulations which allow a fairly free
\nvariation of the rhythm without destroying the consistency of the underlying
\nrhythmic measure. This is achieved in Shiva<\/i> by allowing as the main modulations
\n(1) a paeon<\/span> anywhere in place of an amphibrach, (2)
\nthe substitution of a long for a short syllable either in the first<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-578<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\nor the last syllable of an amphibrach, at
\nwill, (3) the substitution of a dactyl for an initial amphibrach, (4) the
\nsubstitution of a long instead of short syllable in the middle of the final anapaest<\/span>, both this and the ultimate syllable to be in that
\ncase stressed in reading, e.g.,<\/i><\/p>\n

               
\ndeathless | and l\u00f3ne<\/span> h\u00e9ad<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The suppression of the full value of long syllables to make them figure as
\nmetrical shorts has to be avoided in quantitative metre.<\/p>\n

Scan:<\/p>\n

Ă fāce<\/span> ŏn<\/span> | thĕ<\/span> cōld<\/span> dīre<\/span> | mōūntain<\/span> pēāks<\/span>
\n            Grānd<\/span> ănd<\/span> still; | ĭts<\/span> līnes<\/span> whīte<\/span> | ănd<\/span> āūstēre<\/span>
\nMātch<\/span> wĭth<\/span> thĕ<\/span> | ŭnmēāsured<\/span>
\n| snōwў<\/span> strēāks<\/span>
\n            Cūttĭng<\/span> hēāven<\/span>,
\n| ĭmplācā|blĕ<\/span> ănd<\/span>
\nshēēr<\/span>.<\/p>\n

    The Inconscient<\/span> as the source and
\nauthor of all material creation is one of the main discoveries of modern
\npsychology, but it agrees with the idea of a famous Vedic hymn. In the
\nUpanishads, Prajna<\/span>, the Master of Sushupti<\/span>,
\nis the Ishwara<\/span> and therefore the original Creator out
\nof a superconscient<\/span> sleep. The idea of the poem is
\nthat this creative Inconscient<\/span> also is Shiva creating
\nhere life in matter out of an apparently inconscient<\/span>
\nmaterial trance as from above he creates all the worlds (not the material only)
\nfrom a superconscient<\/span> trance. The reality is a
\nsupreme Consciousness – but that is veiled by the appearance on one side of the
\nsuperconscient<\/span> sleep, on the other of the material Inconscience<\/span>. Here the emphasis is on the latter; the superconscient<\/span> is only hinted at, not indicated, – it is
\nthe Infinity out of which comes the revealing Flame.<\/p>\n

THE LIFE HEAVENS<\/p>\n

Further modulations have been introduced in this poem –<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-579<\/font><\/span>
\n<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\na greater use is made of tetrasyllabic<\/span>
\nfeet such as paeons<\/span>, epitrites<\/span>,
\ndi<\/span>-iambs, ionics<\/span> and, once
\nonly, the antispast<\/span> – and in a few places the foot of
\nthree long syllables (molossus<\/span>) has been used, and in
\nothers a foot extending to five syllables (e.g., Dĕlīvĕred<\/span>
\nfrŏm<\/span> grīēf<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Scan:<\/p>\n

Ă līfe<\/span> ŏf<\/span> | ĭntēnsĭtĭes<\/span> | wīde<\/span>,
\nĭmmūne<\/span>
\n            Flōāts<\/span> bĕhīnd<\/span>
\n| thĕ<\/span> ēārth<\/span> ănd<\/span> | hĕr<\/span> līfe-frēt<\/span>,
\nĂ māgĭc<\/span> ŏf<\/span>
\n| rēālms<\/span> māstĕred<\/span>
\nby | spēll<\/span> ănd<\/span> rūne<\/span>,
\n            Grāndĭōse<\/span>, blīss|fŭl<\/span>,
\ncōloured<\/span>, | ĭncrĕāte<\/span>.<\/p>\n

There were two places in which at the time of writing there did not seem to me
\nto be a satisfactory completeness and the addition of a stanza seemed to be
\ncalled for – one at the end of the description of the Life Heavens, a stanza
\nwhich would be a closing global description of the essence of the vital
\nHeavens, the other (less imperatively called for) in the utterance of the
\nVoice. There it is no doubt very condensed, but it cannot be otherwise. I
\nthought, however, that one stanza might be added hinting rather than stating the
\nconnection between the two extremes. The connection is between the Divine
\nsuppressed in its opposites and the Divine eternal in its own unveiled and undescended<\/span> nature. The idea is that the other worlds are
\nnot evolutionary but typal<\/span> and each presents in a
\nlimited perfection some aspect of the Infinite, but each complete, perfectly
\nsatisfied in itself, not asking or aspiring for anything else, for
\nself-exceeding of any kind. That aspiration, on the contrary, is self-imposed
\non the imperfection of Earth; the very fact of the Divine being there, but
\nsuppressed in its phenomenal opposites, compels an effort to arrive at the
\nunveiled Divine – by ascent, but also by a descent of the Divine perfection for
\nevolutionary manifestation here. That is why the Earth declares itself a deeper
\nPower than Heaven because it holds in itself that possibility implied in the
\npresence of the suppressed Divine here, – which does not exist in the
\nperfection of the vital (or even the mental) Heavens.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-580<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\nJIVANMUKTA<\/p>\n

Written in Alcaics<\/span>. These Alcaics<\/span>
\nare not perhaps very orthodox. I have treated the close of the first two lines
\nnot as a dactyl but as a cretic<\/span> and have taken the
\nliberty in any stanza of turning this into a double trochee. In one closing
\nline I have started the dactylic run with two short preliminary syllables and
\nthere is occasionally a dactyl or anapaest<\/span> in
\nunlawful places; the dactyls too are not all pure dactyls. The object is to
\nbring in by modulations some variety and a more plastic form and easier run than
\nstrict orthodoxy could give. But in essence, I think, the alcaic<\/span>
\nmovement remains in spite of these departures.<\/p>\n

The subject is the Vedantic ideal of the living liberated man –jivanmukta<\/i><\/span>– though perhaps I have given a pull
\ntowards my own ideal which the strict Vedantin<\/span> would
\nconsider illegitimate.<\/p>\n

IN HORIS AETERNUM<\/p>\n

This poem on its technical side aims at finding a halfway house between free
\nverse and regular metrical poetry. It is an attempt to avoid the chaotic
\namorphousness of free verse and keep to a regular form based on the fixed
\nnumber of stresses in each line and part of a line while yet there shall be a
\ngreat plasticity and variety in all the other elements of poetic rhythm, the
\nnumber of syllables, the management of the feet, if any, the distribution of
\nthe stress-beats, the changing modulation of the rhythm. In Horis<\/span> Aeternum<\/span><\/i> was meant as a
\nfirst essay in this kind, a very simple and elementary model. The line here is
\ncast into three parts, the first containing two stresses, the second and third
\neach admitting three, four such lines rhymed constituting the stanza.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n(From Letters of the
\nAuthor)<\/font><\/span> <\/p>\n

\nPage-581<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

 <\/div>\n

\n
\n        <\/font> <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NOTES THE BIRD OF FIRE AND TRANCE   These two poems are in the nature of metrical experiments. The first is a kind of compromise…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-05-collected-poems-volume-05","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}