{"id":1703,"date":"2013-07-13T01:36:37","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1703"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:36:37","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:36:37","slug":"38-note-on-the-texts-vol-26-the-future-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/26-the-future-poetry\/38-note-on-the-texts-vol-26-the-future-poetry","title":{"rendered":"-38_Note on the Texts.html"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n\t\t\t Note on the Texts<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t THE FUTURE POETRY<\/b> was first published serially in the monthly
\nreview Arya <\/i>between December 1917 and July 1920 in thirty-two instalments. The starting-point for these chapters was a book by James
\nH. Cousins, New Ways in English Literature <\/i>(Ganesh & Co., Madras, preface dated November 1917). A copy of this book was sent to Sri
\nAurobindo shortly after its publication for review in the Arya<\/i>. He began a review (see Appendix I) but soon abandoned it in favour of
\na larger work drawn, as he wrote later, from his “own ideas and his already conceived view of art and life”.
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t Revision of
\n\t\t\t<\/b>The Future Poetry<\/b> <\/i>was not published as a book during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime. He wished to revise the
\nArya <\/i>chapters before republishing them and twice undertook this task, first in the late 1920s or early 1930s, and then in the last years of his
\nlife, apparently in 1950. During the first period he revised seventeen chapters: 2 \u00ad 14, 16, 25, 27 and 32. The work done ranges from very
\nlight retouching to the rewriting of entire chapters. During the second period he dictated to his amanuensis changes and additions to twenty
\nchapters, thirteen of which had been revised during the earlier period. This later revision is mostly light
\n\t\t\t\u2014 in some chapters only a word or
\ntwo was added or changed \u2014 but it does include two considerable additions to
\n\t\t\tChapter 19 and an incomplete opening for a planned new
\nfirst chapter (see Appendix III). Sri Aurobindo had plans for much more extensive additions. In particular he wished to write a chapter or
\nchapters on contemporary poetry, and was considering a treatment of the metaphysical poets of the seventeenth century.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  All told twenty-four of the book’s thirty-two chapters received some revision at one time or another. A table outlining the nature and
\nextent of the revision of each chapter appears in the reference volume (volume 35).
\n    <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>399<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nWhen asked in 1949 about the possibility of publishing The Future<\/i> Poetry<\/i>, Sri Aurobindo replied that it<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\ncannot be published as it is, for there must be a considerable<\/p>\n

\nrearrangement of its matter since publication from month to<\/p>\n

\nmonth left its plan straggling and ill-arranged and also one or<\/p>\n

\ntwo chapters will have to be omitted or replaced by other new<\/p>\n

\nones. I do not wish it to be published in its present imperfect<\/p>\n

\nform. <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nEditions of
\n\t\t\tThe Future Poetry.<\/i> In 1953<\/b>, three years after Sri Aurobindo’s passing,
\nThe Future Poetry <\/i>was published as a book by the Sri
\nAurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. The publishers were at that time unaware of the existence of the bulk of Sri Aurobindo’s revision. The edition therefore was practically a reprint of the Arya <\/i>chapters. The only parts of the revision used were the two long passages added toChapter
\n19 in 1950. In 1971, the 1953 text was reproduced along with “Letters on Poetry, Literature and Art” as volume 9 of the deluxe edition of the
\nSri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library. The next year the popular edition of this volume was issued, as well as a separate, photographically
\nreduced edition. In 1985 a new edition of
\nThe Future Poetry<\/i>, incorporating for the first time all the author’s revision, was published by the
\nSri Aurobindo Ashram. This edition was reprinted in 1991 and 1994. It omitted the letters; in THE<\/font> COMPLETE<\/font> WORKS OF<\/font> SRI<\/font> AUROBINDO<\/font>
\nthese are included in volume 27, Letters on Poetry and Art<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\n The present edition differs very little from the edition of 1985.
\nThe text has been checked against Sri Aurobindo’s manuscripts, which consist of (1) pages torn from the
\nArya<\/i>, many of which have his handwritten or dictated changes and additions, and (2) a few loose sheets containing longer additions. Only fragments remain of the manuscript
\nused for printing the Arya<\/i>. <\/p>\n

\nSri Aurobindo quoted almost a hundred lines or passages of English poetry as illustrations. The sources of these quotations are given in a table in the reference volume. He seems to have quoted from the
\nworks of older poets largely from memory; for contemporary writers he relied mostly on Cousins’
\nNew Ways in English Literature<\/i>. The
\neditors have reproduced the quotations as they appear in the Arya<\/i> except when a misprint obviously occurred.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>400<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nOn Quantitative Metre<\/i>.<\/b> Sri Aurobindo wrote this essay for inclusion in his
\nCollected Poems and Plays<\/i>, which was brought out in 1942
\nby the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and printed at the Government Central Press, Hyderabad. A separate booklet was also printed at that time
\nfrom the same setting of type. On Quantitative Metre <\/i>included as examples fifteen poems written in quantitative metres. The fifteenth
\nconsisted of the first 371 lines of Ilion <\/i>divided into five sections with headings. These poems are reproduced here with the notes on metre Sri
\nAurobindo provided for them. In Collected Poems<\/i>, volume 2 of THE<\/font> COMPLETE<\/font> WORKS OF<\/font> SRI<\/font> AUROBINDO<\/font>, they appear without notes.
\nIlion <\/i>is printed there in its entirety. <\/p>\n

\nIn the present volume On Quantitative Metre
\n<\/i>is published along
\nwith The Future Poetry <\/i>for the first time. The text of the essay has been carefully checked against Sri Aurobindo’s manuscripts and the
\ntext printed in 1942. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>401<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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