{"id":2500,"date":"2013-07-13T01:42:02","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2500"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:42:02","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:02","slug":"26-metrical-experiments-vol-27-letters-on-poetry-and-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/27-letters-on-poetry-and-art\/26-metrical-experiments-vol-27-letters-on-poetry-and-art","title":{"rendered":"-26_Metrical Experiments.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\tMetrical Experiments <\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n


\n\t\t\tThe Genesis of In Horis Aeternum<\/i> <\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIs there some way of keeping the loose swinging gait of anapaests
\n\t\t\twithin bounds? If one has used them freely in one or more lines,
\n\t\t\tdoes it sound too abrupt to close with a strict iambic line ―as in
\n\t\t\tthe final Alexandrine of: <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe wind hush comes, the varied colours westward stream: <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWere they joy-tinted coral, or song-light seen-heard in a shell
\n\t\t\tfitfully, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDrifted ashore by the hours as a waif from the day-wide sea <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOf Loveliness that smites awake our sorrow-dream? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIt is perhaps a pity that the rhythm of the first three lines runs
\n\t\t\tin such well-worn familiar channels. Is this intensified by the
\n\t\t\tsing-song of the second line, which slipped into the Saturnian metre
\n\t\t\tlengthened out by anapaests? The third line might possibly be taken
\n\t\t\tas four dactyls followed by the spondee "day-wide" and the
\n\t\t\tmonosyllabic foot "sea". What do you think? And would the four
\n\t\t\tdactyls make the earlier part of a passable hexameter, or would at
\n\t\t\tleast one spondee be needed to break up the monotony and too-obvious
\n\t\t\tlilt? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThese are things decided by the habit or training of the ear. The intervention
\nof a dactylic (or, if you like, anapaestic) line followed by an Alexandrine
\nwould to the ear of a former generation have sounded abrupt and inadmissible.
\nBut, I suppose, it would not to an ear accustomed to the greater liberty ―or
\neven licence ―of latter-day movements. <\/p>\n

\nI do not find that the rhythm of the first three lines is well-worn, though that
\nof the first and third are familiar in type. The second seems to me not only not
\nfamiliar, but unusual and very effective. <\/p>\n

\nThe canter of anapaests can, I suppose, be only relieved   <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-231<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

by variation or alternation with another metre, as you have done here ―or by a
\nvery powerful music which would turn the canter into a torrent rush or an
\noceanic sweep or surge. But the proper medium for the latter up till now has
\nbeen a large dactylic movement like the Greek or Latin hexameter; Swinburne has
\ntried to get it into the anapaest, but with only occasional success because of
\nhis excessive facility and looseness, which makes the sound empty owing to want
\nof spiritual substance. But this third line seems to be naturally dactylic and
\nnot anapaestic. Can one speak of catalectic and acatalectic hexameters? If so,
\nthis is a very beautiful catalectic hexameter. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI may say that the four lines seem to be in their variation very
\n\t\t\tremarkably appropriate and effective, each exactly expressing by the
\n\t\t\trhythm the spirit and movement of the thing inwardly seen. I am
\n\t\t\tspeaking of each line by itself; the only objection that could be
\n\t\t\tmade is to the coming together of so many variations in so brief a
\n\t\t\twhole (if it had been longer, I imagine it would not have mattered)
\n\t\t\tas disturbing to the habit of the ear; but I am inclined to think
\n\t\t\tthat this objection would rest less on a reality than a prejudice.
\n\t\t\tThe habit of the ear is not fundamental, it can change. What is
\n\t\t\tfundamental in the inner hearing is not, I think, disturbed by the
\n\t\t\tswiftness of the change from the controlled flow of the first line
\n\t\t\tto the wave dance and shimmer of the second, the rapid drift of the
\n\t\t\tthird and then the deliberate subtlety of the last line. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIs there in recent poetry an unconscious push towards a new metrical
\n\t\t\tbasis altogether for English poetry ―shown by the outbreak of free
\n\t\t\tverse, which fails because it is most often not verse at all ―and
\n\t\t\tthe seeking sometimes for irregularity, sometimes for greater
\n\t\t\tplasticity of verse-movement? Originally, Anglo-Saxon verse
\n\t\t\tdepended, if I remember right, on alliteration and rhythm, not on
\n\t\t\tmeasured feet; Greece and Rome through France and Italy imposed the
\n\t\t\tfoot measure on English; perhaps the hidden seeking for freedom, for
\n\t\t\telbow-room, for the possibility of a varied rhythmic expression
\n\t\t\tnecessitated by the complexity of the inner consciousness might find
\n\t\t\tsome vent in a measure which would depend not on feet but on lengths   <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-232<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nand stresses. I have sometimes thought that and it recurred to me while looking
\nat your second line, for on that principle it might be read <\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n One could imagine a measure made of lines in a given number of lengths like
\n\tthat and each length allowed a given number of stresses; there would be many
\n\tcombinations and variations possible. For example (not of good poetry, but
\n\tof the form), <\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n Perhaps it is only a curious imagination, too difficult and complex to realise,
\n\tbut it came on me strongly, so I put it down on paper. <\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n *<\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\nI have written two more stanzas of the stress-scansion poem so as to complete it
\nand send them to you. In this scansion as I conceive it, the lines may be
\nanalysed into feet, as you say all good rhythm can, but in that case the foot
\nmeasures must be regarded as a quite subsidiary element without any fixed
\nregularity ―just as the (true) quantitative element is treated in ordinary
\nverse. The whole indispensable structure of the lines depends upon stress and
\nthey must be read on a different principle from the current view ―full value
\nmust be given to the true stresses and no fictitious stresses, no weight laid on
\nnaturally unstressed syllables must be allowed ―that is the most important
\npoint. Thus: <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nA far sail on the unchangeable monotone of a slow slumbering sea, A world of
\npower hushed into symbols of hue, silent unendingly; Over its head like a gold
\nball the sun tossed by the gods in their play Follows its curve, ―a blazing eye
\nof Time watching the motionless day.   <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-233<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Here or otherwhere, ―poised on the unreachable abrupt snow-solitary ascent <\/p>\n

\n

Earth aspiring lifts to the illimitable Light, then ceases broken and spent, <\/p>\n

\n

Or in the glowing expanse, arid, fiery and austere, of the desert’s hungry soul,
\n― <\/p>\n

\n

A breath, a cry, a glimmer from Eternity’s face, in a fragment the mystic Whole. <\/p>\n

\n

Moment-mere, yet with all eternity packed, lone, fixed, intense, <\/p>\n

\n

Out of the ring of these hours that dance and die, caught by the spirit in
\nsense, <\/p>\n

\n

In the greatness of a man, in music’s outspread wings, in a touch, in a smile,
\nin a sound, <\/p>\n

\n

Something that waits, something that wanders and settles not, a once Nothing
\nthat was all and is found. <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

It is an experiment and I shall have to do more before I can be sure that I have
\ncaught the whole spirit or sense of this movement; nor do I mean to say that
\nstress-scansion cannot be built on any other principle, ―say, on one with more
\nconcessions to the old music or with less, breaking more away in the direction
\nof free verse; but the essential, I think, is there. <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

P.S. It is with some hesitation that I write "a once Nothing", because I am far
\nfrom sure that the "once" does not overweight the rhythm and make the expression
\ntoo difficult and compact; but on the other hand without it the sense appears
\nambiguous and incomplete, ―for "a Nothing that was all" might be taken in a too
\nmetaphysical light and my object is not to thrust in a metaphysical subtlety but
\nto express the burden of an experience. In the final form I shall probably risk
\nthe ambiguity and reject the intruding "once". <\/p>\n


\n19 April 1932 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

The Genesis of Winged with dangerous deity<\/i><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Your model is exceedingly difficult for the English language ―for this reason
\nthat except in lines closing with triple rhymes the   <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-234<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nlanguage draws back from a regular dactylic ending ―more still from a dactylic
\nlast foot to a stanza. It can be done perhaps in a rhymeless lyrical movement
\nsuch as Arnold was fond of, taking his inspiration from the Greek choruses ―a
\nfirst unconscious step towards the licence of free verse. I have at any rate
\nmade the following attempt. <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWinged with dangerous deity, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPassion swift and implacable <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tArose and, storm-footed <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRan, insatiate, conquering, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWorlds devouring and hearts of men, <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen perished, broken by <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOccult masters of destiny, ―<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThey who sit in the secrecy <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

\nBut there are several snags here. Especially the tribrach is difficult to keep
\nup: the average reader will turn it into a dactyl or amphibrach. I started a
\nrhymed endeavour also, but had no time to pursue it; it is not easy either. <\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t20 June 1934
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n\t\t\tThe Genesis of Moon of Two Hemispheres<\/i><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAfter two days of wrestling I have to admit that I am beaten by your
\n\t\t\tlast metre. I have written something, but it is a fake. I will first
\n\t\t\tproduce the fake. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-235<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThat is the official scansion and except in the last foot of the two last lines
\nit professes to follow very closely the metre of Nishikanta’s poem. But in fact
\nit is full of sins and the appearance is a counterfeit. In the first line the
\nfirst foot is really a bacchius:<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

\nand quantitatively though not accentually the second is a spondee which also
\ndisturbs the true rhythmic movement. "Slowly" and "holy" are in truth trochees
\ndisguised as pyrrhics, and if "slowly" can pass off the deceit a little, "holy"
\nis quite unholy in the brazenness of its pretences. If I could have got a
\ncompound adjective like "god-holy", it would have been all right and saved the
\nsituation, but I could find none that was appropriate. The next three lines are,
\nI think, on the true model and have an honest metre. But the closing cretic of
\nthe last two is nothing but a cowardly flight from the difficulty of the
\nspondee. I console myself by remembering that even Hector ran when he found
\nhimself in difficulties with Achilles and that the Bhagavat lays down <\/font>
\n<\/span>
\nপলাযনম্<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n\t\t\tas one of the ordinary occupations of the Avatar. But the evasion is
\na fact and I am afraid it spoils the correspondence of the metres. I have some
\nidea of adding a second stanza, ―this one will look less guilty perhaps if it
\nhas a companion in sin ―but if you use this at all, you need not wait for the
\nother, as it may never take birth at all. <\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t2 July 1934 <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe Genesis of O pall of black Night<\/i><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nAt first sight your metre seemed to me impossible in English, especially because
\nof the four short syllables at the end of two lines and the five short syllables
\nin two others. English rhythm hardly allows of that ―quantitatively it can be
\nmanaged, but   <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-236<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nfive unaccented unstressed syllables altogether even if it can be done once in a
\nway causes an extreme difficulty when it is made a regular feature of the metre.
\nBut it seems that there is hardly anything impossible in the realm of metre and
\nI succeeded after all subject to one change, the substitution of a long for a
\nshort syllable at the end of the fourth and fifth lines. I suppose I could have
\navoided even this concession if I had fallen back on the device of unrhymed
\nverse, but I wanted to use rhyme. However after finishing I found my stanza
\nright enough as metre, but poor in rhythmic opulence, something bald and lame.
\nSo I had to make yet another concession; I took the option, used in all but one
\nline, to prefix a metrically superfluous syllable to each or any line. I give
\nyou the finished stanza below; if you want to get it such as I originally wrote
\nit, you have only to strike off the first syllable or word in each line except
\nthe fifth; but it is better rhythm and better poetry as it is. <\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n I hope you will find this satisfactory in spite of the two departures from your
\n\tmodel. <\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n P.S. In Horace’s line upon the eloquence and clear order, I have found that I
\n\tdropped a word and truncated the hexameter. I have restored the full line.   <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-237<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

The Genesis of Thought the Paraclete <\/i>and Rose of God<\/i> <\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

I am sending you copies of two poems. One,
\nThought the Paraclete<\/i>, is a development of four lines (now 3 \u00ad 6)
\noriginally written some time ago as an English metrical correspondence for a
\nBengali new metre of Dilip’s. He had asked for some more lines and I thought the
\nfour I had written good enough to warrant a complete poem. Dilip’s scheme was <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

but in English another arrangement might be preferable, either <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

or <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

It is not an easy metre and does not seem to admit of sufficient variations for
\na longer poem. <\/p>\n

\n

The other, Rose of God<\/i>, is a lyric, an invocation. The metrical plan is
\n―for the first two lines of the stanza, three parts with 2 main stresses in
\neach, the first identical throughout, the other two variable at pleasure; for
\nthe last two lines, two parts of equal length, three stresses in each part. <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-238<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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