{"id":1486,"date":"2013-07-13T01:35:08","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1486"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:35:08","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:35:08","slug":"90-an-answer-to-a-criticism-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\/90-an-answer-to-a-criticism-vol-05-collected-poems-volume-05","title":{"rendered":"-90_An Answer to a Criticism.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

\n\t\t
\nAnswer
\nto a Criticism * <\/span><\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t <\/p>\n\n\n
\n

\n
\nM<\/b>ilford accepts the rule that two consonants after a short vowel make the short
\nvowel long, even if they are outside the word and come in another word following
\nit. To my mind that is an absurdity. I shall go on pronouncing the y<\/i> of frosty<\/i>
\nas short whether it has two consonants after it or only one or none; it remains
\n"frosty<\/i> whether it is a frosty scalp<\/i> or frosty top<\/i> or
\na frosty anything. In no case have I pronounced it or could I consent to
\npronounce it as frostee<\/i>. My hexameters are intended to be read naturally
\nas one would read any English sentence. But if you admit a short syllable to be
\nlong whenever there are two consonants after it, then Bridges’ scansions are
\nperfectly justified. Milford does not accept that conclusion; he says Bridges’
\nscansions are an absurdity. But he bases this on his idea that quantitative
\nlength does not count in English verse. It is intonation that makes the metre,
\nhe says; high tones or low tones – not longs and shorts, and stress is there of
\nthe greatest importance. On that ground he refuses to discuss my idea of weight
\nor dwelling of the voice or admit quantity or anything else but tone as
\ndeterminative of the metre and declares that there is no such thing as metrical
\nlength. Perhaps also that is the reason why he counts frosty<\/i> as a spondee
\nbefore scalp<\/i>; he thinks that it causes it to be intoned in a different
\nway. I don’t see how it does that; for my part, I intone it just the same before
\ntop<\/i> as before scalp<\/i>. The ordinary theory is, I believe, that the sc<\/i>
\nof scalp<\/i> acts as a sort of stile (because of the two consonants) which
\nyou take time to cross, so that ty<\/i> must be considered as long because of
\nthis delay of the voice, while the t<\/i> of top<\/i> is merely a line
\nacross the path which gives no trouble. I don’t see it like that; at most, scalp<\/i>
\nis a slightly longer word than top<\/i> and that affects pethaps the rhythm of
\nthe line but not the metre; it cannot lengthen the preceding syllable so as to
\nturn a trochee into a spondee. Santkrit quantitation is irrelevant here (it is
\nthe same as Latin or Greek in this <\/span><\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n*<\/b>Apropos
\nof Ahana, an English critic made some comments on the poet’s system of
\n"true English Quantity" as set forth in his essay "On
\nQuantitative Metre". Sri Aurobindo examines them in this letter replying to
\na disciple’s queries.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n 
\n Page
\n– 551<\/span><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nrespect),
\nfor both Milford and I agree that the classical quantitative conventions are not
\nreproducible in English: we both spew out Bridges’ eccentric rhythms. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n       
\nThis answers also your question as to what Milford means by ‘fundamental
\nconfusion’ regarding aridity<\/i>. He refuses to accept the idea of metrical
\nlength. But I am concerned with metrical as well as natural vowel quantities. My
\ntheory is that natural length in English depends, or can depend, on the dwelling
\nof the voice giving metrical value or weight to the syllable; in quantitative
\nverse one has to take account of all such dwelling or weight of the voice, both
\nweight by ictus (stress) and weight by prolongation of the voice (ordinary
\nsyllabic length); the two are different, but for metrical purposes in a
\nquantitative verse can rank as of equal value. I do not say that stress turns a
\nshort vowel into a long one.
\n        Milford does not take the trouble to understand my theory – he ignores the
\nimportance I give to modulations and treats cretics and antibacchii and molossi
\nas if they were dactyls; he ignores my objection to stressing short
\ninsignificant words like and, with, but, the<\/i> – and thinks that I do that
\neverywhere, which would be to ignore my theory. In fact I have scrupulously
\napplied my theory in every detail of my practice. Take, for instance (Ahana<\/i>,
\np. 523),<\/p>\n

Art thou not heaven-bound even as I with the earth? Hast thou
\n                                                                                 ended…<\/p>\n

Here art<\/i> is long by natural quantity though unstressed, which disproves
\nMilford’s criticism that in practice I never put an unstressed long as the first
\nsyllable of a dactyllic foot or spondee, as I should do by my theory. I don’t do
\nit often because normally in English rhythm stress bears the foot – a fact to
\nwhich I have given full emphasis in my theory. That is the reason why I condemn
\nthe Bridgesean disregard of stress in the rhythm, – still I do it occasionally
\nwhenever it can come in quite naturally.\u00b9<\/font> My
\n,
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n\u00b9<\/font>(E.g.<\/i>
\nOpening tribrachs are very frequent in my hexameter. Cf. Ahana,<\/i> p. 524.
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nIs He then first? Was there none then before Him? Shall none come after?
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nBut
\nMilford thinks I have stressed the first short syllable to make them into
\ndactyls – a thing I abhor. Cf.<\/i> also Ahana,<\/i> p. 530 (initial
\nanapaest): <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nPage \u2013 552<\/p>\n

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

\n

\nqantitative
\nsystem, as I have shown at great length, is based on the natural movement of the
\nEnglish tongue, the same in prose and poetry, not on any artificial theory.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n24-12-1942<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nĪn
\nthĕ hārd | reckoning made by the grey-robed accountant at even,
\nor p. 530 (two anapaests):
\nYĕt sŭrvīves | bliss in the rhythm of our heart-beats, yĕt
\nĭs thĕre | wonder,
\nor again p. 532:
\nĂnd wĕ gō | stumbling, maddened and thrilled to his dreadful
\nembraces,
\nor in my poem Ilion<\/i> p. 393:
\nĂnd thĕ first | Argive fell slain as he leaped on the Phrygian
\nbeaches.
\nThere are even opening amphibrachs here and there. Cf. Ahana,<\/i> p: 527:
\nĬllŭmĭ|nations, trance-seeds of silence, flowers of musing.
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage
\n\u2013 553<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

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

Answer to a Criticism *   Milford accepts the rule that two consonants after a short vowel make the short vowel long, even if they…<\/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-1486","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\/1486","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=1486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}