{"id":2988,"date":"2013-07-13T01:45:09","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2988"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:45:09","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:45:09","slug":"53-nonsense-and-surrealist-verse-vol-02-collected-poems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/02-collected-poems\/53-nonsense-and-surrealist-verse-vol-02-collected-poems","title":{"rendered":"-53_Nonsense and Surrealist Verse.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
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 <\/td>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nNonsense and “Surrealist” Verse<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nA Ballad of Doom<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThere was an awful awful man<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWho all things knew and none<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd never met a Saracen<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd always drank a bun.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe said he was a bullywag<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd that he did it for fun.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI don’t know what a bullywag is<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd I don’t think he was one.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOf nonsense and Omniscience<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe spoke as one who knew<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThat this was like a temperament<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd that was like a hue.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe said there was a phantom sun<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThat saw a branching sky<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd he who could but never should<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWas always God’s best boy.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd he who should but never could<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWas not in the savoury jam<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThat thronged the gates of Paradise<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tJostling the great I am.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe said he saw a smudgy moon<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA down a patterned ridge<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd that Beethoven to his ear<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRang like a bluzzing midge<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThat bluzzed and bluzzed and bluzzed and bluzzed<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUntil the eye grew green<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWith shouting for dear visible things<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhere nothing could be seen.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFor nothing can be seen, my child,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd when it’s seen it’s read,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd when red nothing once is seen<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe world can go to bed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 657<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nSurrealist<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI heard a foghorn shouting at a sheep,<\/p>\n

\nAnd oh the sweet sound made me laugh and weep<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut ah, the sheep was on the hither shore<\/p>\n

\nOf the little less and the ever-never more.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI sprang on its back; it jumped into the sea.<\/p>\n

\nI was near to the edges of eternity.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen suddenly the foghorn blared again.<\/p>\n

\nThere was no sheep  \u2014  it had perished of ear pain.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI took a boat and steered to the Afar<\/p>\n

\nHoping to colonise the polar star.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut in the boat there was a dangerous goose<\/p>\n

\nWhom some eternal idiot had let loose.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTo this wild animal I said not “Bo!”<\/p>\n

\nBut it was not because I did not know.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFull soon I was on shore with dreadful squeals<\/p>\n

\nAnd the fierce biped cackling at my heels.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAlarmed I ran into a lion’s den<\/p>\n

\nAnd after me ran three thousand armoured men.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe lion bolted through his own back door<\/p>\n

\nAnd set up a morose dissatisfied roar.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAt this my courage rose; I grew quite brave<\/p>\n

\nAnd shoved myself into a tiger’s cave.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe tiger snarled; I thought it best instead<\/p>\n

\nTo don my pyjamas and go to bed.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut the tiger had a strained objecting face,<\/p>\n

\nSo I turned my eyes away from his grimace.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAt night the beast began my back to claw<\/p>\n

\nAnd growled out that I was his brother-in-law.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI rose and thought it best to go away<\/p>\n

\nTo a doctor’s house: besides ’twas nearly day.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe doctor shook his head and cried “For a back<\/p>\n

\nPepper and salt are the remedy, alack.”<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut I objected to his condiments<\/p>\n

\nAnd thought the doctor had but little sense.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen I returned to my own little cot<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 658<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nFor really things were now extremely hot.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen fierily the world cracked Nazily down<\/p>\n

\nAnd I looked about to find my dressing gown.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI was awake (I had tumbled on the floor).<\/p>\n

\nA shark was hammering at my front-door.<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSurrealist Poems<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t1<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI heard the coockcouck jabbering on the lea<\/p>\n

\nAnd saw the spokesman sprinting on the spud;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe airmale soared to heaven majestically<\/p>\n

\nAnd dropped down with a strange miraculous thud.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI could not break the bosom of the blue;<\/p>\n

\nI went for a walk and waltzed with woe awhile.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe cat surprised me with a single mew;<\/p>\n

\nThe porridge was magnificently vile.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThese things are symbols if you understand,<\/p>\n

\nBut who can understand when poets resolve<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTo nothing mean. The beautiful beast is banned;<\/p>\n

\nThe problem grows too difficult to solve.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t[The heart of the surrealist poet should be unfathomable.
\nThe problem is how to mean nothing, yet seem to mean anything or everything. His poetry should be at once
\nabout nothing at all and about all things in particular; nonsensically profound and irrationally beautiful. Unknown and extraordinary words are not
\n\t\t\tindispensable in its texture but can have a place, if sparingly and mystically used. One who can do these things and others of a congenital character is a surrealist poet:
\nWilly Whistler.<\/i>] <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 659<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n2<\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe Crossing of the Moro<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nMy way is over the Moro river,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAmid projectiles and sad smiles.<\/p>\n

\nWind bottles in a ghastly jam<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tExplode before you can say damn.<\/p>\n

\nBut the jam is over and we have passed:<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAlas, felicity can never last!<\/p>\n

\nI see an aeroplane on high,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI hear it sob and sigh.<\/p>\n

\nFate happier has been yours, my lad,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFor you are dead and I am mad.<\/p>\n

\nKiss not the corpse but shove it in.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAh let the booby trap be.<\/p>\n

\nThere is a moan upon the moving sea.<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 660<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

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

  Nonsense and “Surrealist” Verse     A Ballad of Doom   There was an awful awful man Who all things knew and none And…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-02-collected-poems","wpcat-57-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2988","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=2988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2988\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}