{"id":1706,"date":"2013-07-13T01:36:39","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1706"},"modified":"2013-12-02T21:09:49","modified_gmt":"2013-12-03T05:09:49","slug":"37-poems-in-quantitative-metres-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\/37-poems-in-quantitative-metres-vol-26-the-future-poetry","title":{"rendered":"-37_Poems\u00a0in Quantitative Metres.html"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t <\/td>\n\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t Poems in Quantitative Metres <\/font><\/b> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIlion<\/font>15<\/font><\/sup><\/b> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tDawn over Ilion<\/i>
\n\t<\/b> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDawn in her journey eternal compelling the labour of mortals, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDawn
\n\t\t\tthe beginner of things with the night for their rest or their
\n\t\t\tending, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPallid and bright-lipped arrived from the mists and the
\n\t\t\tchill of the Euxine. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEarth in the dawn-fire delivered from starry
\n\t\t\tand shadowy vastness <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWoke to the wonder of life and its passion and
\n\t\t\tsorrow and beauty, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAll on her bosom sustaining, the patient
\n\t\t\tcompassionate Mother. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOut of the formless vision of Night with its
\n\t\t\tlook on things hidden <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGiven to the gaze of the azure she lay in her
\n\t\t\tgarment of greenness, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWearing light on her brow. In the dawn-ray
\n\t\t\tlofty and voiceless <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIda climbed with her god-haunted peaks into
\n\t\t\tdiamond lustres, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIda first of the hills with the ranges silent
\n\t\t\tbeyond her <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWatching the dawn in their giant companies, as since the
\n\t\t\tages <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFirst began they had watched her, upbearing Time on their
\n\t\t\tsummits. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTroas cold on her plain awaited the boon of the sunshine. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThere, like a hope through an emerald dream sole-pacing for ever, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tStealing to wideness beyond, crept Simois lame in his currents, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGuiding his argent thread mid the green of the reeds and the
\n\t\t\tgrasses. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHeadlong, impatient of Space and its boundaries, Time and
\n\t\t\tits slowness, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tXanthus clamoured aloud as he ran to the far-surging
\n\t\t\twaters, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tJoining his call to the many-voiced roar of the mighty
\n\t\t\tAegean, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnswering Ocean’s limitless cry like a whelp to its parent. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tForests looked up through their rifts, the ravines grew aware of
\n\t\t\ttheir
\n\t\t\tshadows. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCloser now gliding glimmered the golden feet of the
\n\t\t\tgoddess. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOver the hills and the headlands spreading her garment of
\n\t\t\tsplendour, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFateful she came with her eyes impartial looking on all
\n\t\t\tthings, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBringer to man of the day of his fortune and day of his
\n\t\t\tdownfall. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t15<\/font><\/sup> Hexameters. Some opening passages of a poem left unfinished have
\n\t\t\tbeen recast and added here to illustrate to some extent the theory
\n\t\t\tof the hexameter put forward in the preceding pages. <\/font> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>386<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tFull of her luminous errand, careless of eve and its weeping,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFateful
\n\t\t\tshe paused unconcerned above Ilion’s mysteried greatness,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDomes like
\n\t\t\tshimmering tongues of the crystal flames of the morning,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOpalesque
\n\t\t\trhythm-line of tower-tops, notes of the lyre of the sungod.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHigh
\n\t\t\tover all that a nation had built and its love and its laughter,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLighting the last time highway and homestead, market and temple,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLooking on men who must die and women destined to sorrow,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLooking on
\n\t\t\tbeauty fire must lay low and the sickle of slaughter,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFateful she
\n\t\t\tlifted the doom-scroll red with the script of the Immortals,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDeep in
\n\t\t\tthe invisible air that folds in the race and its morrows<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFixed it,
\n\t\t\tand passed on smiling the smile of the griefless and deathless, \u2014<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDealers of death though death they know not, who in the morning<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tScatter the seed of the event for the reaping ready at nightfall.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOver the brooding of plains and the agelong trance of the summits<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOut of the sun and its spaces she came, pausing tranquil and fatal,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd, at a distance followed by the golden herds of the sungod,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCarried the burden of Light and its riddle and danger to Hellas.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe Coming of the Herald<\/b><\/i> <\/b> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEven as fleets on a chariot divine
\n\t\t\tthrough the gold streets of ether, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSwiftly when Life fleets,
\n\t\t\tinvisibly changing the arc of the soul-drift, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd, with the choice
\n\t\t\tthat has chanced or the fate man has called and
\n\t\t\tnow suffers <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWeighted, the moment travels driving the past towards the future, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOnly its face and its feet are seen, not the burden it carries. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWeight of the event and its surface we bear, but the meaning is
\n\t\t\thidden. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEarth sees not; life’s clamour deafens the ear of the
\n\t\t\tspirit: <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMan knows not; least knows the messenger chosen for the
\n\t\t\tsummons. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOnly he listens to the voice of his thoughts, his heart’s
\n\t\t\tignorant whisper, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhistle of winds in the tree-tops of Time and the
\n\t\t\trustle of Nature. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNow too the messenger hastened driving the car of
\n\t\t\tthe errand: <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEven while dawn was a gleam in the east, he had cried to
\n\t\t\this coursers. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHalf yet awake in light’s turrets started the scouts
\n\t\t\tof the morning <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHearing the jar of the wheels and the throb of the
\n\t\t\thooves’ exultation, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHooves of the horses of Greece as they galloped
\n\t\t\tto Phrygian Troya. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tProudly they trampled through Xanthus thwarting
\n\t\t\tthe foam of his anger,   <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>387<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tWhinnying high as in scorn crossed Simois’ tangled currents, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tXanthus’ reed-girdled twin, the gentle and sluggard river. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOne and
\n\t\t\tunarmed in the car was the driver; grey was he, shrunken, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWorn with
\n\t\t\this decades. To Pergama cinctured with strength Cyclopean <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOld and
\n\t\t\talone he arrived, insignificant, feeblest of mortals, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCarrying Fate
\n\t\t\tin his helpless hands and the doom of an empire. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIlion, couchant,
\n\t\t\tsaw him arrive from the sea and the darkness. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHeard mid the faint
\n\t\t\tslow stirrings of life in the sleep of the city, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRapid there neared
\n\t\t\ta running of feet, and the cry of the summons <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBeat round the doors
\n\t\t\tthat guarded the domes of the splendour of Priam. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t"Wardens charged
\n\t\t\twith the night, ye who stand in Laomedon’s gateway, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWaken the Ilian
\n\t\t\tkings. Talthybius, herald of Argos, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tParleying stands at the portals
\n\t\t\tof Troy in the grey of the dawning." <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHigh and insistent the call. In
\n\t\t\tthe dimness and hush of his chamber <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCharioted far in his dreams amid
\n\t\t\tvisions of glory and terror, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tScenes of a vivider world, \u2014 though
\n\t\t\tblurred and deformed in the
\n\t\t\tbrain-cells, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tVague and inconsequent,
\n\t\t\tthere full of colour and beauty and greatness, \u2014 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSuddenly drawn by
\n\t\t\tthe pull of the conscious thread of the earth-bond <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd of the needs
\n\t\t\tof Time and the travail assigned in the transience <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWarned by his
\n\t\t\tbody, Deiphobus, reached in that splendid remoteness, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTouched
\n\t\t\tthrough the nerve-ways of life that branch to the brain of the
\n\t\t\tdreamer, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHeard the terrestrial call and slumber startled receded <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSliding like dew from the mane of a lion. Reluctant he travelled <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBack from the light of the fields beyond death, from the wonderful
\n\t\t\tkingdoms <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhere he had wandered a soul among souls in the countries
\n\t\t\tbeyond us, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFree from the toil and incertitude, free from the
\n\t\t\tstruggle and danger: <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNow, compelled, he returned from the respite
\n\t\t\tgiven to the time-born, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCalled to the strife and the wounds of the
\n\t\t\tearth and the burden of
\n\t\t\tdaylight. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe from the carven couch upreared
\n\t\t\this giant stature. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHaste-spurred he laved his eyes and regained
\n\t\t\tearth’s memories,
\n\t\t\thaste-spurred <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDonning apparel and armour strode
\n\t\t\tthrough the town of his fathers, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWatched by her gods on his way to
\n\t\t\this fate, towards Pergama’s portals.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>388<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe Siege<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNine long years had passed and the tenth now was wearily
\n\t\t\tending, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYears of the wrath of the gods, and the leaguer still
\n\t\t\tthreatened the
\n\t\t\tramparts <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSince through a tranquil morn the ships
\n\t\t\tcame past Tenedos sailing <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd the first Argive fell slain as he
\n\t\t\tleaped on the Phrygian beaches; <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tStill the assailants attacked, still
\n\t\t\tfought back the stubborn defenders. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhen the reward is withheld and
\n\t\t\tendlessly lengthens the labour, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWeary of fruitless toil grows the
\n\t\t\ttransient heart of the mortal. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWeary of battle the invaders warring hearthless and homeless <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPrayed to the gods for release and return to
\n\t\t\tthe land of their fathers: <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWeary of battle the Phrygians beset in
\n\t\t\ttheir beautiful city <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPrayed to the gods for an end of the danger and
\n\t\t\tmortal encounter. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLong had the high-beached ships forgotten their
\n\t\t\tmeasureless ocean. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGreece seemed old and strange to her children
\n\t\t\tcamped on the beaches, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOld like a life long past one remembers
\n\t\t\thardly believing <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut as a dream that has happened, but as the tale
\n\t\t\tof another. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTime with his tardy touch and Nature changing our
\n\t\t\tsubstance <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSlowly had dimmed the faces loved and the scenes once
\n\t\t\tcherished: <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYet was the dream still dear to them longing for wife and
\n\t\t\tfor children, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLonging for hearth and glebe in the far-off valleys of
\n\t\t\tHellas. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAlways like waves that swallow the shingles, lapsing,
\n\t\t\treturning, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTide of the battle, race of the onset relentlessly
\n\t\t\tthundered <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOver the Phrygian corn-fields. Trojan wrestled with Argive, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCaria, Lycia, Thrace and the war-lord mighty Achaia <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tJoined
\n\t\t\tin the clasp of the fight. Death, panic and wounds and disaster, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGlory of conquest and glory of fall, and the empty hearth-side, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWeeping and fortitude, terror and hope and the pang of remembrance, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnguish of hearts, the lives of the warriors, the strength of the
\n\t\t\tnations <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThrown were like weights into Destiny’s scales, but the
\n\t\t\tbalance wavered <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPressed by invisible hands. For not only the mortal
\n\t\t\tfighters, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHeroes half divine whose names are like stars in
\n\t\t\tremoteness, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTriumphed and failed and were winds or were weeds on the
\n\t\t\tdance of the
\n\t\t\tsurges, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut from the peaks of Olympus and shimmering
\n\t\t\tsummits of Ida    <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>389<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tGleaming and clanging the gods of the antique ages descended. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHidden
\n\t\t\tfrom human knowledge the brilliant shapes of Immortals <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMingled
\n\t\t\tunseen in the mellay, or sometimes, marvellous, maskless, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tForms of
\n\t\t\tundying beauty and power that made tremble the heart-strings <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tParting
\n\t\t\ttheir deathless secrecy crossed through the borders of vision, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPlain
\n\t\t\tas of old to the demigods out of their glory emerging, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHeard by
\n\t\t\tmortal ears and seen by the eyeballs that perish. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMighty they came
\n\t\t\tfrom their spaces of freedom and sorrowless splendour. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSea-vast,
\n\t\t\ttrailing the azure hem of his clamorous waters, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBlue-lidded, maned
\n\t\t\twith the Night, Poseidon smote for the future, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEarth-shaker who with
\n\t\t\this trident releases the coils of the Dragon, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFreeing the forces
\n\t\t\tunborn that are locked in the caverns of Nature. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCalm and unmoved,
\n\t\t\tupholding the Word that is Fate and the order <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFixed in the sight of
\n\t\t\ta Will foreknowing and silent and changeless, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHera sent by Zeus and
\n\t\t\tAthene lifting his aegis <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGuarded the hidden decree. But for Ilion,
\n\t\t\tloud as the surges, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAres impetuous called to the fire in men’s
\n\t\t\thearts, and his passion <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWoke in the shadowy depths the forms of the
\n\t\t\tTitan and demon; <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDumb and coerced by the grip of the gods in the
\n\t\t\tabyss of the being, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFormidable, veiled they sit in the grey
\n\t\t\tsubconscient darkness <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWatching the sleep of the snake-haired Erinnys. Miracled, haloed, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSeer and magician and prophet who beholds
\n\t\t\twhat the thought cannot
\n\t\t\twitness, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLifting the godhead within us to
\n\t\t\tmore than a human endeavour, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSlayer and saviour, thinker and mystic,
\n\t\t\tleaped from his sun-peaks <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGuarding in Ilion the wall of his
\n\t\t\tmysteries Delphic Apollo. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHeaven’s strengths divided swayed in the
\n\t\t\twhirl of the Earth-force. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAll that is born and destroyed is reborn
\n\t\t\tin the sweep of the ages; <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLife like a decimal ever recurring repeats
\n\t\t\tthe old figure; <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGoal seems there none for the ball that is chased
\n\t\t\tthroughout Time by the
\n\t\t\tFate-teams; <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEvil once ended renews and no
\n\t\t\tissue comes out of living: <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOnly an Eye unseen can distinguish the
\n\t\t\tthread of its workings. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSuch seemed the rule of the pastime of Fate
\n\t\t\ton the plains of the Troad; <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAll went backwards and forwards tossed
\n\t\t\tin the swing of the death-game. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tVain was the toil of the heroes, the
\n\t\t\tblood of the mighty was squandered, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSpray as of surf on the cliffs
\n\t\t\twhen it moans unappeased, unrequited<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>390<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tAge after fruitless age. Day hunted the steps of the nightfall; <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tJoy
\n\t\t\tsucceeded to grief; defeat only greatened the vanquished, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tVictory
\n\t\t\toffered an empty delight without guerdon or profit. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEnd there was
\n\t\t\tnone of the effort and end there was none of the failure. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTriumph
\n\t\t\tand agony changing hands in a desperate measure <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFaced and turned as
\n\t\t\ta man and a maiden trampling the grasses <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFace and turn and they
\n\t\t\tlaugh in their joy of the dance and each other. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThese were gods and
\n\t\t\tthey trampled lives. But though Time is immortal, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMortal his works
\n\t\t\tare and ways and the anguish ends like the rapture. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tArtists of
\n\t\t\tNature content with their work in the plan of the transience, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBeautiful, deathless, august, the Olympians turned from the carnage, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLeaving the battle already decided, leaving the heroes <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSlain in
\n\t\t\ttheir minds, Troy burned, Greece left to her glory and downfall. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tInto their heavens they rose up mighty like eagles ascending <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFanning
\n\t\t\tthe world with their wings. As the great to their luminous
\n\t\t\tmansions <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTurn from the cry and the strife, forgetting the wounded and fallen, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCalm they repose from their toil and incline to the joy of the
\n\t\t\tbanquet, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWatching the feet of the wine-bearers rosily placed on the
\n\t\t\tmarble, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFilling their hearts with ease, so they to their sorrowless
\n\t\t\tether <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPassed from the wounded earth and its air that is ploughed
\n\t\t\twith men’s
\n\t\t\tanguish; <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCalm they reposed and their hearts inclined to
\n\t\t\tthe joy and the silence. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLifted was the burden laid on our wills by
\n\t\t\ttheir starry presence: <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMan was restored to his smallness, the world
\n\t\t\tto its inconscient labour. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLife felt a respite from height, the
\n\t\t\twinds breathed freer delivered; <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLight was released from their blaze
\n\t\t\tand the earth was released from their
\n\t\t\tgreatness. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut their immortal
\n\t\t\tcontent from the struggle titanic departed. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tVacant the noise of the
\n\t\t\tbattle roared like the sea on the shingles; <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWearily hunted the
\n\t\t\tspears their quarry; strength was disheartened; <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSilence increased
\n\t\t\twith the march of the months on the tents of the leaguer. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut not
\n\t\t\talone on the Achaians the steps of the moments fell heavy; <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSlowly
\n\t\t\tthe shadow deepened on Ilion mighty and scornful: <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDragging her days
\n\t\t\twent by; in the rear of the hearts of her people <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSomething that knew
\n\t\t\twhat they dared not know and the mind would
\n\t\t\tnot utter,   <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>391<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tSomething that smote at her soul of defiance and beauty and
\n\t\t\tlaughter, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDarkened the hours. For Doom in her sombre and giant
\n\t\t\tuprising <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNeared, assailing the skies: the sense of her lived in all
\n\t\t\tpastimes; <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTime was pursued by unease and a terror woke in the
\n\t\t\tmidnight: <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEven the ramparts felt her, stones that the gods had
\n\t\t\terected. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNow no longer she dallied and played, but bounded and
\n\t\t\thastened, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSeeing before her the end and, imagining massacre calmly, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLaughed and admired the flames and rejoiced in the cry of the
\n\t\t\tcaptives. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUnder her, dead to the watching immortals, Deiphobus
\n\t\t\thastened <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tClanging in arms through the streets of the beautiful
\n\t\t\tinsolent city, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBrilliant, a gleaming husk but empty and left by the
\n\t\t\tdaemon. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEven as a star long extinguished whose light still travels
\n\t\t\tthe spaces, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSeen in its form by men, but itself goes phantom-like
\n\t\t\tfleeting <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tVoid and null and dark through the uncaring infinite
\n\t\t\tvastness, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSo now he seemed to the sight that sees all things from
\n\t\t\tthe Real. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTimeless its vision of Time creates the hour by things
\n\t\t\tcoming. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBorne on a force from the past and no more by a power for
\n\t\t\tthe future <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMighty and bright was his body, but shadowy the shape of
\n\t\t\this spirit <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOnly an eidolon seemed of the being that had lived in
\n\t\t\thim, fleeting <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tVague like a phantom seen by the dim Acherontian
\n\t\t\twaters. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe Herald<\/i>
\n\t<\/b> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut to the guardian towers that watched over Pergama’s gateway <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOut of the waking city Deiphobus swiftly arriving <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCalled, and
\n\t\t\tswinging back the huge gates slowly, reluctant, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFlung Troy wide to
\n\t\t\tthe entering Argive. Ilion’s portals <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tParted admitting her destiny,
\n\t\t\tthen with a sullen and iron <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCry they closed. Mute, staring, grey
\n\t\t\tlike a wolf descended <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOld Talthybius, propping his steps on the
\n\t\t\tstaff of his errand; <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFeeble his body, but fierce still his glance
\n\t\t\twith the fire within him; <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSpeechless and brooding he gazed on the
\n\t\t\thated and coveted city. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSuddenly, seeking heaven with her buildings
\n\t\t\thewn as for Titans, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMarvellous, rhythmic, a child of the gods with
\n\t\t\tmarble for raiment, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSmiting the vision with harmony, splendid and
\n\t\t\tmighty and golden, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIlion stood up around him entrenched in her giant
\n\t\t\tdefences. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tStrength was uplifted on strength and grandeur supported
\n\t\t\tby grandeur; <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>392<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tBeauty lay in her lap. Remote, hieratic and changeless, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFilled with
\n\t\t\ther deeds and her dreams her gods looked out on the Argive, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHelpless
\n\t\t\tand dumb with his hate as he gazed on her, they too like mortals <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tKnowing their centuries past, not knowing the morrow before them. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDire were his eyes upon Troya the beautiful, his face like a
\n\t\t\tdoom-mask: <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAll Greece gazed in them, hated, admired, grew afraid,
\n\t\t\tgrew relentless. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut to the Greek Deiphobus cried and he turned from
\n\t\t\this passion <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFixing his ominous eyes with the god in them straight on
\n\t\t\tthe Trojan: <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t"Messenger, voice of Achaia, wherefore confronting the
\n\t\t\tdaybreak <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tComest thou driving thy car from the sleep of the tents
\n\t\t\tthat besiege us? <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFateful, I deem, was the thought that, conceived in
\n\t\t\tthe silence of midnight, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRaised up thy aged limbs from the couch of
\n\t\t\ttheir rest in the stillness, \u2014 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThoughts of a mortal but forged by
\n\t\t\tthe Will that uses our members <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd of its promptings our speech and
\n\t\t\tour acts are the tools and the image. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOft from the veil and the
\n\t\t\tshadow they leap out like stars in their
\n\t\t\tbrightness, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLights that we
\n\t\t\tthink our own, yet they are but tokens and counters, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSigns of the
\n\t\t\tForces that flow through us serving a Power that is secret. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhat in
\n\t\t\tthe dawning bringst thou to Troya the mighty and dateless <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNow in the
\n\t\t\tending of Time when the gods are weary of struggle? <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSends Agamemnon
\n\t\t\tchallenge or courtesy, Greek, to the Trojans?" <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHigh like the northwind answered the voice of the doom from Achaia: <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t"Trojan
\n\t\t\tDeiphobus, daybreak, silence of night and the evening <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSink and arise
\n\t\t\tand even the strong sun rests from his splendour. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNot for the
\n\t\t\tservant is rest nor Time is his, only his death-pyre. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI have not
\n\t\t\tcome from the monarch of men or the armoured assembly <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHeld on the
\n\t\t\twind-swept marge of the thunder and laughter of ocean. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOne in his
\n\t\t\tsingleness greater than kings and multitudes sends me. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI am a voice
\n\t\t\tout of Phthia, I am the will of the Hellene. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPeace in my right I
\n\t\t\tbring to you, death in my left hand. Trojan, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tProudly receive them,
\n\t\t\thonour the gifts of the mighty Achilles. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDeath accept, if Ate
\n\t\t\tdeceives you and Doom is your lover, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPeace if your fate can turn and
\n\t\t\tthe god in you chooses to hearken. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFull is my heart and my lips are
\n\t\t\timpatient of speech undelivered. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIt was not made for the streets or
\n\t\t\tthe market, nor to be uttered <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMeanly to common ears, but where
\n\t\t\tcounsel and majesty harbour <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFar from the crowd in the halls of the
\n\t\t\tgreat and to wisdom and foresight   <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>393<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tSecrecy whispers, there I will speak among Ilion’s princes." <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t"Envoy," answered the Laomedontian, "voice of Achilles, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tVain is the
\n\t\t\toffer of peace that sets out with a threat for its prelude. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYet will
\n\t\t\twe hear thee. Arise who are fleetest of foot in the gateway, \u2014 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThou,
\n\t\t\tThrasymachus, haste. Let the domes of the mansion of Ilus <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWake to
\n\t\t\tthe bruit of the Hellene challenge. Summon Aeneas." <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEven as the word
\n\t\t\tsank back into stillness, doffing his mantle <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tStarted to run at the
\n\t\t\tbidding a swift-footed youth of the Trojans <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFirst in the race and
\n\t\t\tthe battle, Thrasymachus son of Aretes. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe in the dawn disappeared
\n\t\t\tinto swiftness. Deiphobus slowly, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMeasuring Fate with his thoughts
\n\t\t\tin the troubled vasts of his spirit, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBack through the stir of the
\n\t\t\tcity returned to the house of his fathers, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTaming his mighty stride
\n\t\t\tto the pace infirm of the Argive. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tAeneas<\/font><\/i><\/b> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut with the god in his feet Thrasymachus rapidly running <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCame to
\n\t\t\tthe halls in the youth of the wonderful city by Ilus <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBuilt for the
\n\t\t\tjoy of the eye; for he rested from war and, triumphant, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tReigned
\n\t\t\tadored by the prostrate nations. Now when all ended, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLast of its
\n\t\t\tmortal possessors to walk in its flowering gardens, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGreat Anchises
\n\t\t\tlay in that luminous house of the ancients <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSoothing his restful age,
\n\t\t\tthe far-warring victor Anchises, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHigh Bucoleon’s son and the father
\n\t\t\tof Rome by a goddess; <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLonely and vagrant once in his boyhood divine
\n\t\t\tupon Ida <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhite Aphrodite ensnared him and she loosed her ambrosial
\n\t\t\tgirdle <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSeeking a mortal’s love. On the threshold Thrasymachus halted <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLooking for servant or guard, but felt only a loneness of slumber <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDrawing the soul’s sight within away from its life and things human; <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSoundless, unheeding, the vacant corridors fled into darkness. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe to
\n\t\t\tthe shades of the house and the dreams of the echoing rafters <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTrusted his high-voiced call, and from chambers still dim in their
\n\t\t\ttwilight <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tStrong Aeneas armoured and mantled, leonine striding, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCame, Anchises’ son; for the dawn had not found him reposing, \u00a8 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut in the
\n\t\t\tnight he had left his couch and the clasp of Creusa, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRising from
\n\t\t\tsleep at the call of his spirit that turned to the waters <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPrompted
\n\t\t\tby Fate and his mother who guided him, white Aphrodite.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>394<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tStill with the impulse of speed Thrasymachus greeted Aeneas: <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t"Hero
\n\t\t\tAeneas, swift be thy stride to the Ilian hill-top. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDardanid, haste!
\n\t\t\tfor the gods are at work; they have risen with the
\n\t\t\tmorning, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEach
\n\t\t\tfrom his starry couch, and they labour. Doom, we can see it, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGlows
\n\t\t\ton their anvils of destiny, clang we can hear of their hammers. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSomething they forge there sitting unknown in the silence eternal, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhether of evil or good it is they who shall choose who are masters <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCalm, unopposed; they are gods and they work out their iron
\n\t\t\tcaprices. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTroy is their stage and Argos their background; we are
\n\t\t\ttheir puppets. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAlways our voices are prompted to speech for an end
\n\t\t\tthat we know not, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAlways we think that we drive, but are driven.
\n\t\t\tAction and impulse, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYearning and thought are their engines, our will
\n\t\t\tis their shadow and
\n\t\t\thelper. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNow too, deeming he comes with a
\n\t\t\tpurpose framed by a mortal, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tShaft of their will they have shot from
\n\t\t\tthe bow of the Grecian leaguer, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLashing themselves at his steeds,
\n\t\t\tTalthybius sent by Achilles." <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t"Busy the gods are always,
\n\t\t\tThrasymachus son of Aretes, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWeaving Fate on their looms, and
\n\t\t\tyesterday, now and tomorrow <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAre but the stands they have made with
\n\t\t\tSpace and Time for their timber, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFrame but the dance of their
\n\t\t\tshuttle. What eye unamazed by their
\n\t\t\tworkings <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEver can pierce where
\n\t\t\tthey dwell and uncover their far-stretching purpose? <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSilent they
\n\t\t\ttoil, they are hid in the clouds, they are wrapped with the
\n\t\t\tmidnight. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYet to Apollo I pray, the Archer friendly to mortals, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYet
\n\t\t\tto the rider on Fate I abase myself, wielder of thunder, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEvil and
\n\t\t\tdoom to avert from my fatherland. All night Morpheus, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe who with
\n\t\t\tshadowy hands heaps error and truth upon mortals, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tStood at my pillow
\n\t\t\twith images. Dreaming I erred like a phantom <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHelpless in Ilion’s
\n\t\t\tstreets with the fire and the foeman around me. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRed was the smoke as
\n\t\t\tit mounted triumphant the house-top of Priam, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tClang of the arms of
\n\t\t\tthe Greeks was in Troya, and thwarting the clangour <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tVoices were
\n\t\t\tcrying and calling me over the violent Ocean <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBorne by the winds of
\n\t\t\tthe West from a land where Hesperus harbours." <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBrooding they ceased,
\n\t\t\tfor their thoughts grew heavy upon them and
\n\t\t\tvoiceless.    <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>395<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tThen, in a farewell brief and unthought and unconscious of meaning,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tParting they turned to their tasks and their lives now close but
\n\t\t\tsoon
\n\t\t\tsevered:<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDestined to perish even before his perishing nation,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBack to his watch at the gate sped Thrasymachus rapidly running;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLarge of pace and swift, but with eyes absorbed and unseeing,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDriven
\n\t\t\tlike a car of the gods by the whip of his thoughts through the
\n\t\t\thighways,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTurned to his mighty future the hero born of a goddess.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOne was he chosen to ascend into greatness through fall and
\n\t\t\tdisaster,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLoser of his world by the will of a heaven that seemed
\n\t\t\truthless and
\n\t\t\tadverse,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFounder of a newer and greater world by
\n\t\t\tdaring adventure.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNow, from the citadel’s rise with the townships
\n\t\t\tcrowding below it<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHigh towards a pondering of domes and the mystic
\n\t\t\tPalladium climbing,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFronted with the morning ray and joined by the
\n\t\t\twinds of the ocean,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFate-weighed up Troy’s slope strode musing
\n\t\t\tstrong Aeneas.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUnder him silent the slumbering roofs of the city of
\n\t\t\tIlus<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDreamed in the light of the dawn; above watched the citadel,
\n\t\t\tsleepless<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLonely and strong like a goddess white-limbed and bright
\n\t\t\ton a hill-top,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLooking far out at the sea and the foe and the
\n\t\t\tprowling of danger.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOver the brow he mounted and saw the palace of
\n\t\t\tPriam,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHome of the gods of the earth, Laomedon’s marvellous vision<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHeld in the thought that accustomed his will to unearthly
\n\t\t\tachievement<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd in the blaze of his spirit compelling heaven with
\n\t\t\tits greatness,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDreamed by the harp of Apollo, a melody caught into
\n\t\t\tmarble.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOut of his mind it arose like an epic canto by canto;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEach
\n\t\t\tof its halls was a strophe, its chambers lines of an epode,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tVictor
\n\t\t\tchant of Ilion’s destiny. Absent he entered,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tVoiceless with thought,
\n\t\t\tthe brilliant megaron crowded with paintings,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPaved with a splendour
\n\t\t\tof marble, and saw Deiphobus seated,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSon of the ancient house by the
\n\t\t\topulent hearth of his fathers,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd at his side like a shadow the
\n\t\t\tgrey and ominous Argive.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHappy of light like a lustrous star when it
\n\t\t\twelcomes the morning,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBrilliant, beautiful, glamoured with gold and
\n\t\t\ta fillet of gem-fire,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tParis, plucked from the song and the lyre by
\n\t\t\tthe Grecian challenge,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCame with the joy in his face and his eyes
\n\t\t\tthat Fate could not alter.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>396<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tEver a child of the dawn at play near a turn of the sun-roads,
\nFacing destiny’s look with the careless laugh of a comrade, He with his vision of delight and beauty brightening the earth-field
\nPassed through its peril and grief on his way to the ambiguous Shadow. Last from her chamber of sleep where she lay in the Ilian mansion
\nFar in the heart of the house with the deep-bosomed daughters of Priam, Noble and tall and erect in a nimbus of youth and of glory,
\nClaiming the world and life as a fief of her strength and her courage, Dawned through a doorway that opened to distant murmurs and laughter,
\nCapturing the eye like a smile or a sunbeam, Penthesilea.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>397<\/font><\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/span><\/td>\n

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

  Poems in Quantitative Metres   Ilion15     Dawn over Ilion   Dawn in her journey eternal compelling the labour of mortals, Dawn the beginner…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-26-the-future-poetry","wpcat-38-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1706","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=1706"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9707,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1706\/revisions\/9707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}