{"id":1474,"date":"2013-07-13T01:35:03","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1474"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:35:03","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:35:03","slug":"55-despair-on-the-staircase-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\/55-despair-on-the-staircase-vol-05-collected-poems-volume-05","title":{"rendered":"-55_Despair on the Staircase.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

\n
\nDespair
\non the Staircase<\/font>
\n <\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n\n\n
\n

 <\/td>\n

\n

Mute
\nstands<\/span> she, lonely on the
\ntopmost stair,<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

An
\n<\/span>image of magnificent despair;<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The
\ngrandeur of a sorrowful surmise<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Wakes
\nin the largeness of her glorious eyes.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

In
\nher beauty\u2019s dumb significant pose I find,<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The
\ntragedy of her mysterious mind.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet
\nis she stately, grandiose, full of grace.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

A
\nmusing mask is her immobile face.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Her
\ntail is up like an unconquered flag,<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Its
\ndignity knows not the right to wag.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

An
\nanimal creature wonderfully human,<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

A
\ncharm<\/span> and miracle of fur-footed
\nBrahman,<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether
\nshe is spirit, woman or a cat,<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Is
\nnow the problem I am wondering at.<\/p>\n

                                <\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/h5>\n

\n
\n  Surrealist<\/p>\n

<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

I
\nhave heard a foghorn shouting at a sheep,<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

And
\noh the sweet sound made me laugh and weep<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

But
\nalas,( <\/span>ah<\/span>
\n) the sheep was on the hither shore<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Of
\nthe little less and the ever-never more.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

I
\nsprang on its back; it jumped into the sea.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

I
\nwas near to the edges of eternity.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Then
\nsuddenly the foghorn blared again.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

There
\nwas no sheep<\/span> –<\/span> it
\nhad perished of ear pain.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

I
\ntook a boat and steered to the Afar<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Hoping
\nto colonise the polar star.
\n 
\n <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n


\nPage-113<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

     
\nBut in the boat there was a dangerous goose<\/p>\n

Whom
\nsome eternal idiot had let loose.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

To
\nthis wild animal I said not \u201cBo!\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

But
\nit was not because I did not know.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Full
\nsoon I was on shore with dreadful squeals<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

And
\nthe fierce biped cackling at my heels.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Alarmed
\nI ran into a lion\u2019s den<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

And
\nafter me ran three thousand armoured men.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The
\nlion bolted through his own backdoor<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

And
\nset up a morose dissatisfied roar.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

At
\nthis my courage rose; I grew quite brave<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

And
\nshoved myself into a tiger\u2019s cave.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The
\ntiger snarled; I thought it best instead<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

To
\ndon my pyjamas and go to bed.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

But
\nthe tiger had a strained objecting face,<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

So
\nI turned my eyes away from his grimace.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

At
\nnight the beast began my back to claw<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

And
\ngrowled out that I was his brother-in-law.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

I
\nrose and thought it best to go away<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

To
\na doctor\u2019s house: besides \u2019twas nearly day.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The
\ndoctor shook his head and cried \u201cFor a back<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Pepper
\nand salt are the remedy, alack.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

But
\nI objected to his condiments<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

And
\nthought the doctor had but little sense.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Then
\nI returned to my own little cot<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

For
\nreally things were now extremely hot.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Then
\nfierily<\/i> the world cracked Nazily <\/i>down<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

And
\nI looked about to find my dressing gown.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

I
\nwas awake (I had tumbled on the floor).<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

A
\nshark was hammering away at my front-door.
\n                                  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 
\n Page-114<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despair on the Staircase     Mute stands she, lonely on the topmost stair, An image of magnificent despair; The grandeur of a sorrowful surmise…<\/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-1474","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\/1474","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=1474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1474\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}