{"id":2535,"date":"2013-07-13T01:42:16","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2535"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:42:16","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:16","slug":"01-poetic-creation-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\/01-poetic-creation-vol-27-letters-on-poetry-and-art","title":{"rendered":"-01_Poetic Creation.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

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

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSri Aurobindo in Pondicherry<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

\n

\n

\n

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

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPart One<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPoetry and Its Creation<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

\n

\n

\n

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

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tSection One<\/b><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe Sources of Poetry<\/b><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

\n

\n

\n

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

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t Poetic Creation<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/font>Three Elements of
\n\t\t\tPoetic Creation<\/span><\/b><\/b>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t Poetry, or at any rate a truly poetic poetry,
\n\t\t\tcomes always from some subtle plane through the creative vital and
\n\t\t\tuses the outer mind and other external instruments for transmission
\n\t\t\tonly. There are three elements in the production of poetry; there is
\n\t\t\tthe original source of inspiration, there is the vital force of
\n\t\t\tcreative beauty which contributes its own substance and impetus and
\n\t\t\toften determines the form, except when that also comes ready made
\n\t\t\tfrom the original sources; there is, finally, the transmitting outer
\n\t\t\tconsciousness of the poet. The most genuine and perfect poetry is
\n\t\t\twritten when the original source is able to throw its inspiration
\n\t\t\tpure and undiminished into the vital and there takes its true native
\n\t\t\tform and power of speech exactly reproducing the inspiration, while
\n\t\t\tthe outer consciousness is entirely passive and transmits without
\n\t\t\talteration what it receives from the godheads of the inner or the
\n\t\t\tsuperior spaces. When the vital mind and emotion are too active and
\n\t\t\tgive too much of their own initiation or a translation into more or
\n\t\t\tless turbid vital stuff, the poetry remains powerful but is inferior
\n\t\t\tin quality and less authentic. Finally, if the outer consciousness
\n\t\t\tis too lethargic and blocks the transmission or too active and makes
\n\t\t\tits own version, then you have the poetry that fails or is at best a
\n\t\t\tcreditable mental manufacture. It is the interference of these two
\n\t\t\tparts either by obstruction or by too great an activity of their own
\n\t\t\tor by both together that causes the difficulty and labour of
\n\t\t\twriting. There would be no difficulty if the inspiration came
\n\t\t\tthrough without obstruction or interference in a pure transcript ―that is what happens in a poet’s highest or freest moments when he
\n\t\t\twrites not at all out of his own external human mind, but by
\n\t\t\tinspiration, as the mouthpiece of the Gods. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-5<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tThe originating source may be anywhere; the poetry may arise or descend from the subtle physical plane, from the higher
\nor lower vital itself, from the dynamic or creative intelligence, from the plane of dynamic vision, from the psychic, from the
\nillumined mind or Intuition, ―even, though this is the rarest, from the Overmind widenesses. To get the Overmind inspiration is so rare that there are only a few lines or short passages in all poetic literature that give at least some appearance or
\nreflection of it. When the source of inspiration is in the heart or the psychic there is more easily a good will in the vital channel,
\nthe flow is spontaneous; the inspiration takes at once its true form and speech and is transmitted without any interference or
\nonly a minimum of interference by the brain-mind, that great spoiler of the higher or deeper splendours. It is the character
\nof the lyrical inspiration, to flow in a jet out of the being ―whether it comes from the vital or the psychic, it is usually
\nspontaneous, for these are the two most powerfully impelling and compelling parts of the nature. When on the contrary the
\nsource of inspiration is in the creative poetic intelligence or even the higher mind or the illumined mind, the poetry which comes
\nfrom this quarter is always apt to be arrested by the outer intellect, our habitual thought-production engine. This intellect
\nis an absurdly overactive part of the nature; it always thinks that nothing can be well done unless it puts its finger into the
\npie and therefore it instinctively interferes with the inspiration, blocks half or more than half of it and labours to substitute its
\nown inferior and toilsome productions for the true speech and rhythm that ought to have come. The poet labours in anguish
\nto get the one true word, the authentic rhythm, the real divine substance of what he has to say, while all the time it is waiting
\ncomplete and ready behind; but it is denied free transmission by some part of the transmitting agency which prefers to translate
\nand is not willing merely to receive and transcribe. When one gets something through from the illumined mind, then there is
\nlikely to come to birth work that is really fine and great. When there comes with labour or without it something reasonably
\nlike what the poetic intelligence wanted to say, then there is <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-6<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

something fine or adequate, though it may not be great unless there is an intervention from the higher levels. But when the
\nouter brain is at work trying to fashion out of itself or to give its own version of what the higher sources are trying to pour down,
\nthen there results a manufacture or something quite inadequate or faulty or, at the best, “good on the whole”, but not
\nthe <\/i>thing
\nthat ought to have come. <\/p>\n

\n\t2 June 1931<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 Creation by the Word
\n\t\t\t<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The word is a sound expressive of the idea. In the supra-physical
\nplane when an idea has to be realised, one can by repeating the word-expression of it, produce vibrations which prepare the
\nmind for the realisation of the idea. That is the principle of the Mantra and of japa. One repeats the name of the Divine and the
\nvibrations created in the consciousness prepare the realisation of the Divine. It is the same idea that is expressed in the Bible, “God
\nsaid, Let there be Light, and there was Light.” It is creation by the Word. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t6 May 1933 <\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCreative Power and the Human Instrument
\n<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A poem may pre-exist in the timeless as all creation pre-exists there or else in some plane where the past, present and future
\nexist together. But it is not necessary to presuppose anything of the kind to explain the phenomena of inspiration. All is here a
\nmatter of formation or creation. By the contact with the source of inspiration the creative Power at one level or another and the
\nhuman instrument, receptacle or channel get into contact. That is the essential point, all the rest depends upon the individual
\ncase. If the substance, rhythm, form, words come down all together ready-formed from the plane of poetic creation, that is
\nthe perfect type of inspiration; it may give its own spontaneous gift or it may give something which corresponds to the idea or
\nthe aspiration of the poet, but in either case the human being is only a channel or receptacle, although he feels the joy of the
\n\tcreation and the joy of the
\n\t\t\tā<\/font>veś<\/font>a, enthousiasmos<\/i>, elation of the<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-7<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

inrush and the passage. On the other hand it may be that the creative source sends down the substance or stuff, the force and
\nthe idea, but the language, rhythm etc. are formed somewhere in the instrument; he has to find the human transcription of
\nsomething that is there in diviner essence above; then there is an illumination or excitement, a conscious labour of creation
\nswift or slow, hampered or facile. Something of the language may be supplied by the mind or vital, something may break
\nthrough from somewhere behind the veil, from whatever source gets into touch with the transcribing mind in the liberating or
\nstimulating excitement or uplifting of the consciousness. Or a line or lines may come through from some plane and the poet
\nexcited to creation may build around them constructing his material or getting it from any source he can tap. There are
\nmany possibilities of this nature. There is also the possibility of an inspiration not from above, but from somewhere within on
\nthe ordinary levels, some inner mind, emotional vital etc. which the mind practised in poetical technique works out according
\nto its habitual faculty. Here again in a different way similar phenomena, similar variations may arise. <\/p>\n

As for the language, the tongue in which the poem comes or the whole lines from above, that offers no real difficulty.
\nIt all depends on the contact between the creative Power and the instrument or channel, the Power will naturally choose the
\nlanguage of the instrument or channel, that to which it is accustomed and can therefore readily hear and receive. The Power
\nitself is not limited and can use any language, but although it is possible for things to come through in a language unknown
\nor ill-known ―I have seen several instances of the former ―it 
\nis not a usual case, since the sanskā<\/font>ra <\/i>of the mind, its habits of action and conception would normally obstruct any such unprepared receptiveness; only a strong mediumistic faculty might be unaffected by this difficulty. These things however are obviously
\nexceptional, abnormal or supernormal phenomena. <\/p>\n

If the parts of a poem come from different planes, it is
\nbecause one starts from some high plane but the connecting consciousness cannot receive uninterruptedly from there and as <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-8<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tsoon as it flickers or wavers it comes down to a lower, perhaps
\nwithout noticing it, or the lower comes in to supply the continuation of the flow or on the contrary the consciousness starts from
\n\t\t\ta lower plane and is lifted in the ā<\/font>veś<\/font>a<\/i>, perhaps occasionally,
\nperhaps more continuously higher for a time or else the higher force attracted by the creative will breaks through or touches or
\ncatches up the less exalted inspiration towards or into itself. I am speaking here especially of the overhead planes where this
\nis quite natural; for the Overmind for instance is the ultimate source of
\n\t\t\tintuition, illumination or heightened power of the planes
\n\t\t\timmediately below it. It can lift them up into its own greater
\n\t\t\tintensity or give out of its intensity to them or touch or combine
\n\t\t\ttheir powers together with something of its own greater power ―or
\n\t\t\tthey can receive or draw something from it or from each other. On
\n\t\t\tthe lower planes beginning from the mental downwards there can also
\n\t\t\tbe such variations or combinations, but the working is not the same,
\n\t\t\tfor the different powers here stand more on a footing of equality
\n\t\t\twhether they stand apart from each other, each working in its own
\n\t\t\tright, or cooperate.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 29 April 1937 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\nHuman creation comes from the vital planes into the physical ―but there is often enough something more behind it than is
\nexpressed ―it gets altered or diminished in the human physical transcription.                                            <\/p>\n

\n9 March 1933<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n Joy of Poetic Creation<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPoetry takes its start from any plane of the consciousness, but, like all art, one might even say all creation, it must be passed
\nthrough <\/i>the vital, the life-soul, gather from it a certain force for manifestation if it is to be itself alive. And as there is always a
\njoy in creation, that joy along with a certain enthousiasmos <\/i>―not enthusiasm, if you please, but an invasion and exultation of
\ncreative force and creative ecstasy, ā<\/font>nandamaya
\nā<\/font>veś<\/font>a <\/i>―must always be there, whatever the source. But where the inspiration <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-9<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\ncomes from the linking of the vital creative instrument to a deeper psychic experience, that imparts another kind of intensive
\noriginality and peculiar individual power, a subtle and delicate perfection, a linking on to something that is at once fine to
\netheriality and potent, intense as fire yet full of sweetness. But this is exceedingly rare in its absolute quality,
\n―poetry as an
\nexpression of mind and life is common, poetry of the mind and life touched by the soul and given a spiritual fineness is to be
\nfound but more rare; the pure psychic note in poetry breaks through only once in a way, in a brief lyric, a sudden line, a
\nluminous passage. It was indeed because this linking-on took place that the true poetic faculty suddenly awoke in you,
\n―for
\nit was not there before, at least on the surface. The joy you feel, therefore, was no doubt partly the simple joy of creation,
\nbut there comes also into it the joy of expression of the psychic being which was seeking for an outlet since your boyhood. It is
\nthis inner expression that makes the writing of poetry a part of sadhana. <\/p>\n

\n29 May 1931 <\/font> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nEssence of Inspiration
\n<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThere can be inspiration also without words ―a certain intensity in the light
\nand force and substance of the knowledge is the essence of inspiration. <\/p>\n

\n18 June 1933 <\/font> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nInspiration and Effort <\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nInspiration is always a very uncertain thing; it comes when it
\nchooses, stops suddenly before it has finished its work, refuses to descend when it is called. This is a well-known affliction,
\nperhaps of all artists, but certainly of poets. There are some who can command it at will; those who, I think, are more full
\nof an abundant poetic energy than careful for perfection; others who oblige it to come whenever they put pen to paper but with
\nthese the inspiration is either not of a high order or quite unequal in its level. Again there are some who try to give it a habit of
\ncoming by always writing at the same time; Virgil with his nine<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-10<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nlines first written, then perfected every morning, Milton with his fifty epic lines a day, are said to have succeeded in regularising their inspiration. It is, I suppose, the same principle which makes gurus in India prescribe for their disciples a meditation
\nat the same fixed hour every day. It succeeds partially of course, for some entirely, but not for everybody. For myself, when the
\ninspiration did not come with a rush or in a stream, ―for then there is no difficulty,
\n―I had only one way, to allow a certain
\nkind of incubation in which a large form of the thing to be done threw itself on the mind and then wait for the white heat in
\nwhich the entire transcription could rapidly take place. But I think each poet has his own way of working and finds his own
\nissue out of inspiration’s incertitudes.                                                           <\/p>\n

\n26 January 1932 <\/font> <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Merciful heavens, what a splashing and floundering! When you
\nmiss a verse or a poem, it is better to wait in an entire quietude about it (with only a silent expectation) until the true inspiration
\ncomes, and not to thrash the inner air vainly for possible variants ―like that the true form is much more likely to come, as people
\ngo to sleep on a problem and find it solved when they awake. Otherwise, you are likely to have only a series of misses, the
\nhalf-gods of the semi-poetic mind continually intervening with their false enthusiasms and misleading voices.<\/p>\n

\n\t11 July 1931<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n*<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nFew poets can keep for a very long time a sustained level of the highest inspiration. The best poetry does not usually come
\nby streams except in poets of a supreme greatness though there may be in others than the greatest long-continued wingings at a
\nconsiderable height. The very best comes by intermittent drops, though sometimes three or four gleaming drops at a time. Even
\nin the greatest poets, even in those with the most opulent flow of riches like Shakespeare, the very best is comparatively rare.<\/p>\n

\n13 February 1936<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-11<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nAspiration, Opening, Recognition <\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nImpatience does not help ―intensity of aspiration does. The use of keeping the
\nconsciousness uplifted is that it then remains ready for the inflow from above
\nwhen that comes. To get as early as possible to the highest range one must keep
\nthe consciousness steadily turned towards it and maintain the call. First one
\nhas to establish the permanent opening ―or get it to establish itself, then the
\nascension and frequent, afterwards constant descent. It is only afterwards that
\none can have the ease.<\/p>\n

\n21 April 1937 <\/p>\n

\n*<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

Perhaps one reason why your mind is so variable is because
\nit has learned too much and has too many influences stamped upon it; it does not allow the real poet in you who is a little
\nat the back to be himself ―it wants to supply him with a form instead of allowing him to breathe into the instrument his own
\nnotes. It is besides too ingenious. . . . What you have to learn is the art of allowing things to come through and recognising
\namong them the one right thing ―which is very much what you have to do in Yoga also. It is really this recognition that is the
\none important need ―once you have that, things become much easier. <\/p>\n

\n\t3 July 1932 <\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tSelf-criticism<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 It is no use being disgusted because there is a best you have not reached yet; every poet should have that feeling of “a miraculous
\npoetic creation existing on a plane” he has not reached, but he should not despair of reaching it, but rather he has to regard
\npresent achievement not as something final but as steps towards what he hopes one day to write. That is the true artistic temper.<\/p>\n

\n\t1 May 1934 <\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

\n\t <\/p>\n

\nIt is precisely the people who are careful, self-critical, anxious for perfection who have interrupted visits from the Muse. Those<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-12<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nwho don’t mind what they write, trusting to their genius, vigour or fluency to carry it off are usually the abundant writers. There
\nare exceptions, of course. “The poetic part caught in the mere mind” is an admirable explanation of the phenomenon of interruption. Fluent poets are those who either do not mind if they do not always write their very best or whose minds are sufficiently
\npoetic to make even their “not best” verse pass muster or make a reasonably good show. Sometimes you write things that are
\ngood enough, but not your best, but both your insistence and mine ―for I think it essential for you to write your best always,
\nat least your “level best” ―may have curbed the fluency a good deal. <\/p>\n

\nThe check and diminution forced on your prose was compensated by the much higher and maturer quality to which it
\nattained afterwards. It would be so, I suppose, with the poetry; a new level of consciousness once attained, there might well be
\na new fluency. So there is not much justification for the fear. <\/p>\n

\n6 October 1936
\n\t<\/font> <\/p>\n

\n*<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

You seem to suffer from a mania of self-depreciatory criticism.
\nMany artists and poets have that; as soon as they look at their work they find it awfully poor and bad. (I had that myself often
\nvaried with the opposite feeling, Arjava also has it); but to have it while writing is its most excruciating degree of intensity. Better
\nget rid of it if you want to write freely. <\/p>\n

\n\t14 December 1936 <\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tCorrection by Second Inspiration <\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is a second inspiration which has come in improving on the
\nfirst. When the improving is done by the mind and not by a pure inspiration, then the retouches spoil more often than they
\nperfect. <\/p>\n

\n\t8 August 1936 <\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-13<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry Part One Poetry and Its Creation Section One The Sources of Poetry     Poetic Creation    Three Elements of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-27-letters-on-poetry-and-art","wpcat-51-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535","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=2535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}