{"id":2533,"date":"2013-07-13T01:42:15","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2533"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:42:15","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:15","slug":"09-technique-inspiration-artistry-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\/09-technique-inspiration-artistry-vol-27-letters-on-poetry-and-art","title":{"rendered":"-09_Technique, Inspiration, Artistry.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSection Three<\/font><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t Poetic Technique<\/font><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tTechnique, Inspiration, Artistry <\/font><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tInspiration and Technique <\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

You do not need at all to afflict your inspiration by studying metrical technique
\n\t―you have all the technique you need, within
\nyou. I have never <\/i>studied prosody myself ―in English, at least, ―what I know I know by reading and writing and following my
\near and using my intelligence. If one is interested in the technical study of prosody for its own sake, that is another matter
\n\t―but
\nit is not at all indispensable. <\/p>\n

\n\t28 April 1934<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 Knowledge of Technique and Intuitive Cognition
\n\t\t\t<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As for the technique, there are two different things, the intellectual knowledge which one applies, the intuitive cognition which acts in its own right, even if it is not actually possessed by
\nthe worker. Many poets for instance have little knowledge of metrical or linguistic technique and cannot explain how they
\nwrite or what are the qualities and elements of their success, but they write all the same things that are perfect in rhythm and
\nlanguage. Intellectual knowledge of technique helps of course, provided one does not make of it a mere device or a rigid fetter.
\nThere are some arts that cannot be done well without some technical knowledge, e.g. painting, sculpture. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t14 May 1936
\n\t\t\t<\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tArtistry of Technique
\n<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

I don’t know that Swinburne failed for this reason
\n\t―before assenting to such a dictum I should like to know which were
\nthese poems he spoiled by too much artistry of technique. So far as I remember, his best poems are those in which he is most
\nperfect in artistry, most curious or skilful, most subtle. I think<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-117<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

his decline began when he felt himself too much at ease and poured himself out in an endless waste of melody without caring for substance and the finer finenesses of form. Attention to technique harms only when a writer is so busy with it that he be
\ncomes indifferent to substance. But if the substance is adequate, the attention to technique can only give it greater beauty. Even
\ndevices like a refrain, internal rhymes, etc. can indeed be great aids to the inspiration and the expression
\n\t\t\t―just as can ordinary
\nrhyme. It is in my view a serious error to regard metre or rhyme as artificial elements, mere external and superfluous equipment
\nrestraining the movement and sincerity of poetic form. Metre, on the contrary, is the most natural mould of expression for
\ncertain states of creative emotion and vision, it is much more natural and spontaneous than a non-metrical form; the emotion
\nexpresses itself best and most powerfully in a balanced rather than in a loose and shapeless rhythm. The search for technique
\nis simply the search for the best and most appropriate form for expressing what has to be said and once it is found, the
\ninspiration can flow quite naturally and fluently into it. There can be no harm therefore in close attention to technique so long
\nas there is no inattention to substance.             <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t24 August 1935
\n\t\t\t<\/font> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

There are only two conditions about artistry: (1) that the artistry
\ndoes not become so exterior as to be no longer art and (2) that
\nsubstance (in which of course I include bhā<\/font>va<\/i>) is not left behind
\nin the desert or else art and bhā<\/font>va <\/i>not woven into each other. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\nSwinburne’s defect is his preference of sound to sense, but I would find it difficult to find fault with his music or his rhythmical method. There is no reason why one should not use assonance and alliteration, if one knows how to use them as
\nSwinburne did. Everybody cannot succeed like that and those who cannot must be careful and restrained in their use.                 <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-118<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tArt for Art’s Sake
\n<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tArt for Art’s sake? But what after all is meant by this slogan and what is the real issue behind it? Is it meant, as I think it
\nwas when the slogan first came into use, that the technique, the artistry is all in all? The contention would then be that it does
\nnot matter what you write or paint or sculpt or what music you make or about what you make it so long as it is beautiful
\nwriting, competent painting, good sculpture, fine music. It is very evidently true in a certain sense,
\n\t\t\t―in this sense that whatever
\nis perfectly expressed or represented or interpreted under the conditions of a given art proves itself by that very fact to be
\nlegitimate material for the artist’s labour. But that free admission cannot be confined only to all objects, however common or
\ndeemed to be vulgar ―an apple, a kitchen pail, a donkey, a dish of carrots, ―it can give a right of citizenship in the domain of
\nart to a moral theme or thesis, a philosophic conclusion, a social experiment; even the Five Years’ Plan or the proceedings of a
\nDistrict Board or the success of a drainage scheme, an electric factory or a big hotel can be brought, after the most modern
\nor the still more robustious Bolshevik mode, into the artist’s province. For, technique being all, the sole question would be
\nwhether he as poet, novelist, dramatist, painter or sculptor has been able to triumph over the difficulties and bring out creatively
\nthe possibilities of his subject. There is no logical basis here for accepting an apple and rejecting the Apple-Cart. But still you
\nmay say that at least the object of the artist must be art only, ―even if he treats ethical, social or political questions, he must not
\nmake it his main object to wing with the enthusiasm of aesthetic creation a moral, social or political aim. But if in doing it he
\nsatisfies the conditions of his art, shows a perfect technique and in it beauty, power, perfection, why not? The moralist, preacher,
\nphilosopher, social or political enthusiast is often doubled with an artist ―as shining proofs and examples there are Plato and
\nShelley, to go no farther. Only, you can say of him on the basis of this theory that as a work of art his creation should be judged
\nby its success of craftsmanship and not by its contents; it is not<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-119<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tmade greater by the value of his ethical ideas, his enthusiasms or his metaphysical seekings. <\/p>\n

But then the theory itself is true only up to a certain point. For technique is a means of expression; one does not write
\nmerely to use beautiful words or paint for the sole sake of line and colour; there is something that one is trying through these
\nmeans to express or to discover. What is that something? The first answer would be
\n―it is the creation, it is the discovery
\nof Beauty. Art is for that alone and can be judged only by its revelation or discovery of Beauty. Whatever is capable of being
\nmanifested as Beauty, is the material of the artist. But there is not only physical beauty in the world
\n―there is moral, intellectual,
\nspiritual beauty also. Still one might say that Art for Art’s sake means that only what is aesthetically beautiful must be expressed
\nand all that contradicts the aesthetic sense of beauty must be avoided, ―Art has nothing to do with Life in itself, things in
\nthemselves, Good, Truth or the Divine for their own sake, but only in so far as they appeal to some aesthetic sense of beauty.
\nAnd that would seem to be a sound basis for excluding the Five Years’ Plan, a moral sermon or a philosophical treatise.
\nBut here again, what after all is Beauty? How much is it in the thing itself and how much in the consciousness that perceives it?
\nIs not the eye of the artist constantly catching some element of aesthetic value in the plain, the ugly, the sordid, the repellent and
\ntriumphantly conveying it through his material, ―through the word, through line and colour, through the sculptured shape? <\/p>\n

There is a certain state of Yogic consciousness in which all things become beautiful to the eye of the seer simply because
\nthey spiritually are ―because they are a rendering in line and form of the quality and force of existence, of the consciousness,
\nof the Ananda that rules the worlds, ―of the hidden Divine. What a thing is to the exterior sense may not be, often is not
\nbeautiful for the ordinary aesthetic vision, but the Yogin sees in it the something More which the external eye does not see, he
\nsees the soul behind, the self and spirit, he sees too lines, hues, harmonies and expressive dispositions which are not to the first
\nsurface sight visible or seizable. It may be said that he brings into <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-120<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

the object something that is in himself, transmutes it by adding out of his own being to it
\n\t\t\t―as the artist too does something of
\nthe same kind but in another way. It is not quite that however, ―what the Yogin sees, what the artist sees, is there
\n\t\t\t―his is a
\ntransmuting vision because it is a revealing vision; he discovers behind what the object appears to be the something More that it
\nis. And so from this point of view of a realised supreme harmony all is or can be subject-matter for the artist because in all he can
\ndiscover and reveal the Beauty that is everywhere. Again we land ourselves in a devastating catholicity; for here too one cannot
\npull up short at any given line. It may be a hard saying that one must or may discover and reveal beauty in a pig or its poke or in
\na parish pump or an advertisement of somebody’s pills, and yet something like that seems to be what modern Art and literature
\nare trying with vigour and a conscientious labour to do. By extension one ought to be able to extract beauty equally well
\nout of morality or social reform or a political caucus or allow at least that all these things can, if he wills, become legitimate
\nsubjects for the artist. Here too one cannot say that it is on condition he thinks of beauty only and does not make moralising
\nor social reform or a political idea his main object. For if with that idea foremost in his mind he still produces a great work of
\nart, discovering Beauty as he moves to his aim, proving himself in spite of his unaesthetic preoccupations a great artist, it is all
\nwe can justly ask from him ―whatever his starting point ―to be a creator of Beauty. Art is discovery and revelation of Beauty
\nand we can say nothing more by way of prohibition or limiting rule. <\/p>\n

But there is one thing more that can be said, and it makes a big difference. In the Yogin’s vision of universal beauty all
\nbecomes beautiful, but all is not reduced to a single level. There are gradations, there is a hierarchy in this All-Beauty and we
\nsee that it depends on the ascending power (vibhuti) of consciousness and Ananda that expresses itself in the object. All is
\nthe Divine, but some things are more divine than others. In the artist’s vision too there are or can be gradations, a hierarchy
\nof values. Shakespeare can get dramatic and therefore aesthetic <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-121<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

values out of Dogberry and Malvolio, and he is as thorough a creative artist in his treatment of them as in his handling of
\nMacbeth or Lear. But if we had only Dogberry or Malvolio to testify to Shakespeare’s genius, no Macbeth, no Lear, would he
\nbe so great a dramatic artist and creator as he now is? It is in the varying possibilities of one subject or another that there lies an
\nimmense difference. Apelles’ grapes deceived the birds that came to peck at them, but there was more aesthetic content in the Zeus
\nof Phidias, a greater content of consciousness and therefore of Ananda to express and with it to fill in and intensify the essential
\nprinciple of Beauty even though the essence of beauty might be realised perhaps with equal aesthetic perfection by either artist
\nand in either theme. <\/p>\n

And that is because just as technique is not all, so even
\nBeauty is not all in Art. Art is not only technique or form of Beauty, not only the discovery or the expression of Beauty,
\n\t―
\nit is a self-expression of Consciousness under the conditions of aesthetic vision and a perfect execution. Or to put it otherwise
\nthere are not only aesthetic values but life-values, mind-values, soul-values, that enter into Art. The artist puts out into form
\nnot only the powers of his own consciousness but the powers of the Consciousness that has made the worlds and their objects.
\nAnd if that Consciousness according to the Vedantic view is fundamentally equal everywhere, it is still in manifestation not an
\nequal power in all things. There is more of the Divine expression \u00af .<\/i>
\nin the Vibhuti than in the common man, prākrto janah<\/i>; in some .<\/i>
\nforms of life there are less potentialities for the self-expression of the Spirit than in others. And there are also gradations of
\nconsciousness which make a difference, if not in the aesthetic value or greatness of a work of art, yet in its contents value.
\nHomer makes beauty out of man’s outward life and action and stops there. Shakespeare rises one step farther and reveals to us
\na life-soul and life-forces and life-values to which Homer had no access. In Valmiki and Vyasa there is the constant presence of
\ngreat Idea-Forces and Ideals supporting life and its movements which were beyond the scope of Homer and Shakespeare. And
\nbeyond the Ideals and Idea-Forces even there are other presences, <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-122<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

more inner or inmost realities, a soul behind things and beings, the spirit and its powers, which could be the subject-matter of
\nan art still more rich and deep and abundant in its interest than any of these could be. A poet finding these and giving them a
\nvoice with a genius equal to that of the poets of the past might not be greater than they in a purely aesthetical valuation, but
\nhis art’s contents-value, its consciousness-values could be deeper and higher and much fuller than in any achievement before him.
\nThere is something here that goes beyond any considerations of Art for Art’s sake or Art for Beauty’s sake; for while these stress
\nusefully sometimes the indispensable first elements of artistic creation, they would limit too much the creation itself if they
\nstood for the exclusion of the something More that compels Art to change always in its constant seeking for more and more that
\nmust be expressed of the concealed or the revealed Divine, of the individual and the universal or the transcendent Spirit. <\/p>\n

If we take these three elements as making the whole of Art, perfection of expressive form, discovery of beauty, revelation
\nof the soul and essence of things and the powers of creative consciousness and Ananda of which they are the vehicles, then
\nwe shall get perhaps a solution which includes the two sides of the controversy and reconciles their difference. Art for Art’s sake
\ncertainly ―Art as a perfect form and discovery of Beauty; but also Art for the soul’s sake, the spirit’s sake and the expression of
\nall that the soul, the spirit wants to seize through the medium of beauty. In that self-expression there are grades and hierarchies
\n―widenings and steps that lead to the summits. And not only to enlarge Art towards the widest wideness but to ascend with
\nit to the heights that climb towards the Highest is and must be part both of our aesthetic and our spiritual endeavour. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t17 April 1933  <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-123<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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