{"id":3010,"date":"2013-07-13T01:45:20","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3010"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:45:20","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:45:20","slug":"44-six-poems-vol-02-collected-poems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/02-collected-poems\/44-six-poems-vol-02-collected-poems","title":{"rendered":"-44_Six Poems.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

 <\/td>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPart Seven<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPondicherry<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nCirca 1927 \u00ad 1947<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nSix Poems<\/font><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nThe Bird of Fire<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGold-white wings a throb in the vastness, the bird of flame went glimmering over a sunfire curve to the haze of the west,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSkimming, a messenger sail, the sapphire-summer waste of a soundless wayless burning sea.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNow in the eve of the waning world the colour and splendour returning drift through a blue-flicker air back to my breast,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFlame and shimmer staining the rapture-white foam-vest of the waters of Eternity.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGold-white wings of the miraculous bird of fire, late and slow have you come from the Timeless. Angel, here unto me<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBringst thou for travailing earth a spirit silent and free or His crimson passion of love divine,  \u2014
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhite-ray-jar of the spuming rose-red wine drawn from the vats brimming with light-blaze, the vats of ecstasy,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPressed by the sudden and violent feet of the Dancer in Time from his sun-grape fruit of a deathless vine?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhite-rose-altar the eternal Silence built, make now my nature wide, an intimate guest of His solitude,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut golden above it the body of One in Her diamond sphere with Her halo of star-bloom and passion-ray!<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRich and red is thy breast, O bird, like blood of a soul climbing the hard crag-teeth world, wounded and nude,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA ruby of flame-petalled love in the silver-gold altar-vase of moon-edged night and rising day.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tO Flame who art Time’s last boon of the sacrifice, offering-flower held by the finite’s gods to the Infinite,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tO marvel bird with the burning wings of light and the unbarred lids that look beyond all space,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOne strange leap of thy mystic stress breaking the barriers of mind and life, arrives at its luminous term thy flight;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tInvading the secret clasp of the Silence and crimson Fire thou frontest eyes in a timeless Face.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 547<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n
\nTrance<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA naked and silver-pointed star<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFloating near the halo of the moon;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA storm-rack, the pale sky’s fringe and bar,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOver waters stilling into swoon.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMy mind is awake in stirless trance,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHushed my heart, a burden of delight;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDispelled is the senses’ flicker-dance,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMute the body aureate with light.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tO star of creation pure and free,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHalo-moon of ecstasy unknown,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tStorm-breath of the soul-change yet to be,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOcean self enraptured and alone!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tShiva<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nThe Inconscient Creator<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA face on the cold dire mountain peaks<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGrand and still; its lines white and austere<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMatch with the unmeasured snowy streaks<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCutting heaven, implacable and sheer.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAbove it a mountain of matted hair<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAeon-coiled on that deathless and lone head<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIn its solitude huge of lifeless air<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRound, above illimitably spread.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA moon-ray on the forehead, blue and pale,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tStretched afar its finger of chill light<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIllumining emptiness. Stern and male<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMask of peace indifferent in might!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 548<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nBut out from some Infinite born now came<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOver giant snows and the still face<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA quiver and colour of crimson flame,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFire-point in immensities of space.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nLight-spear-tips revealed the mighty shape,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTore the secret veil of the heart’s hold;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn that diamond heart the fires undrape,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLiving core, a brazier of gold.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThis was the closed mute and burning source<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhence were formed the worlds and their star-dance;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLife sprang, a self-rapt inconscient Force,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLove, a blazing seed, from that flame-trance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nThe Life Heavens<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA life of intensities wide, immune<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFloats behind the earth and her life-fret,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA magic of realms mastered by spell and rune,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGrandiose, blissful, coloured, increate.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA music there wanders mortal ear<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHears not, seizing, intimate, remote,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWide-winged in soul-spaces, fire-clear,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHeaping note on enrapturing new note.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tForms deathless there triumph, hues divine<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThrill with nets of glory the moved air;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEach sense is an ecstasy, love the sign<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOf one outblaze of godhead that two share.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe peace of the senses, the senses’ stir<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOn one harp are joined mysteries; pain<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTransmuted is ravishment’s minister,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA high note and a fiery refrain.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 549<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nAll things are a harmony faultless, pure;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGrief is not nor stain-wound of desire;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe heart-beats are a cadence bright and sure<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOf Joy’s quick steps, too invincible to tire.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nA Will there, a Force, a magician Mind<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMoves, and builds at once its delight-norms,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe marvels it seeks for surprised, outlined,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHued, alive, a cosmos of fair forms,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nSounds, colours, joy-flamings. Life lies here<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDreaming, bound to the heavens of its goal,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn the clasp of a Power that enthrals to sheer<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBliss and beauty body and rapt soul.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nMy spirit sank drowned in the wonder surge:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tScreened, withdrawn was the greatness it had sought;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLost was the storm-stress and the warrior urge,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLost the titan winging of the thought.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nIt lay at ease in a sweetness of heaven-sense<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDelivered from grief, with no need left to aspire,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFree, self-dispersed in voluptuous innocence,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLulled and borne into roseate cloud-fire.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nBut suddenly there soared a dateless cry,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDeep as Night, imperishable as Time;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt seemed Death’s dire appeal to Eternity,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEarth’s outcry to the limitless Sublime.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n“O high seeker of immortality,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIs there not, ineffable, a bliss<\/span><\/p>\n

\nToo vast for these finite harmonies,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tToo divine for the moment’s unsure kiss?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 550<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n“Arms taking to a voiceless supreme delight,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLife that meets the Eternal with close breast,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn unwalled mind dissolved in the Infinite,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tForce one with unimaginable rest?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n“I, Earth, have a deeper power than Heaven;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMy lonely sorrow surpasses its rose-joys,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA red and bitter seed of the raptures seven;  \u2014 <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMy dumbness fills with echoes of a far Voice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n“By me the last finite, yearning, strives<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTo reach the last infinity’s unknown,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe Eternal is broken into fleeting lives<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd Godhead pent in the mire and the stone.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nDissolving the kingdoms of happy ease<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRocked and split and faded their dream-chime.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll vanished; ungrasped eternities<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSole survived and Timelessness seized Time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nEarth’s heart was felt beating below me still,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tVeiled, immense, unthinkable above<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMy consciousness climbed like a topless hill,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCrossed seas of Light to epiphanies of Love.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nJivanmukta<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThere is a silence greater than any known<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo earth’s dumb spirit, motionless in the soul<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThat has become Eternity’s foothold,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTouched by the infinitudes for ever.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA Splendour is here, refused to the earthward sight,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat floods some deep flame-covered all-seeing eye;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRevealed it wakens when God’s stillness<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHeavens the ocean of moveless Nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 551<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nA Power descends no Fate can perturb or vanquish,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCalmer than mountains, wider than marching waters,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA single might of luminous quiet<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTirelessly bearing the worlds and ages.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nA Bliss surrounds with ecstasy everlasting,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAn absolute high-seated immortal rapture<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPossesses, sealing love to oneness<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIn the grasp of the All-beautiful, All-beloved.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nHe who from Time’s dull motion escapes and thrills<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRapt thoughtless, wordless into the Eternal’s breast,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUnrolls the form and sign of being,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSeated above in the omniscient Silence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nAlthough consenting here to a mortal body,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe is the Undying; limit and bond he knows not;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFor him the aeons are a playground,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLife and its deeds are his splendid shadow.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nOnly to bring God’s forces to waiting Nature,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTo help with wide-winged Peace her tormented labour<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd heal with joy her ancient sorrow,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCasting down light on the inconscient darkness,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nHe acts and lives. Vain things are mind’s smaller motives<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTo one whose soul enjoys for its high possession<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tInfinity and the sempiternal<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAll is his guide and beloved and refuge.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 552<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n
\nIn Horis Aeternum<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA far sail on the unchangeable monotone of a slow slumbering sea,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA world of power hushed into symbols of hue, silent unendingly;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOver its head like a gold ball the sun tossed by the gods in their play<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFollows its curve,  \u2014  a blazing eye of Time watching the motionless day.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nHere or otherwhere,  \u2014  poised on the unreachable abrupt, snow-solitary ascent<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nOr on the glowing expanse, arid, fiery and austere, of the desert’s
\n\t\t\thungry soul,  \u2014 <\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\nMoment-mere, yet with all Eternity packed, lone, fixed, intense,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOut of the ring of these hours that dance and die caught by the spirit
\nin sense,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIn the greatness of a man, in music’s outspread wings, in a touch, in
\na smile, in a sound,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSomething that waits, something that wanders and settles not, a<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNothing that was all and is found.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 553<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nNOTES<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t(From Letters of the Author<\/i>)<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nTHE<\/font> BIRD OF<\/font> FIRE<\/font>  \u2014  TRANCE<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThese two poems are in the nature of metrical experiments. The first is a kind of compromise between the stress system and the foot measure. The stanza is of four lines, alternately of twelve and ten stresses. The second and fourth line in each stanza
\n\t\t\tcan be read as a ten-foot line of mixed iambs and anapaests, the first and third, though a similar system subject to replacement of afoot anywhere by a single-syllable half-foot could be applied, are still mainly readable by stresses.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe other poem is an experiment in the use of quantitative foot measures not following any existing model, but
\nfreely invented. It is a four-line stanza reading alternately <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n  
\n\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  ˘ \u00af ˘ | ˘ \u00af ˘ | \u00af ˘ \u00af
\n\t\t\t|
\n\t\t\t \u00af \u00af<\/span> ˘ | ˘ \u00af \u00af<\/span>
\n\t\t\t|
\n\t\t\tand    \u00af ˘ \u00af | ˘ \u00af ˘ | ˘ ˘<\/span> \u00af |<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIt could indeed be read otherwise, in several ways, but read in the ordinary way of accentual feet it would lose all
\n\t\t\tlyrical quality and the soul of its rhythm. <\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe Bird of Fire is the living vehicle of the gold fire of
\n\t\t\tthe Divine Light and the white fire of the Divine Tapas and the crimson fire of Divine Love  \u2014  and everything else of the
\n\t\t\tDivine Consciousness. <\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tSHIVA<\/font>  \u2014  The Inconscient Creator<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe quantitative metre of Trance <\/i>is suited only for a very brief lyrical poem. For longer poems I have sought to use it as a
\n\t\t\tbase but to liberate it by the introduction of an ample number of modulations which allow a fairly free variation of the
\n\t\t\trhythm without destroying the consistency of the underlying rhythmic measure. This is achieved in Shiva <\/i>by allowing as the main modulations (1) a paeon anywhere in place of an amphibrach, (2) the
\n\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 554<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tsubstitution of a long for a short syllable either in the first
\n\t\t\tor the last syllable of an amphibrach, at will, thus substituting a bacchius or an antibacchius, (3) the substitution of a
\n\t\t\tdactyl for an initial amphibrach, (4) the substitution of a long instead of short syllable in the middle of the final anapaest, both
\n\t\t\tthis and the ultimate syllable to be in that case stressed in reading, e.g.,<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\ta bacchius replacing the anapaest.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe suppression of the full value of long syllables to make them figure as metrical shorts has to be avoided in quantitative metre.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tScan:     <\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tĂ
\n\t\t\tfāce<\/span> ŏn<\/span> |
\n\t\t\tthĕ<\/span> cōld<\/span>
\n\t\t\tdīre<\/span> | mōūntăin<\/span>
\n\t\t\tpēāks<\/span><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t            Grānd<\/span>
\n\t\t\tănd<\/span> stīll; | ĭts<\/span>
\n\t\t\tlīnes<\/span> whīte<\/span>
\n\t\t\t| ănd<\/span> āūstēre<\/span>
\n\t\t\t        Mātch<\/span> wĭth<\/span>
\n\t\t\tthĕ<\/span> | ŭnmēāsŭred<\/span>
\n\t\t\t| snōwў<\/span> strēāks<\/span><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t            Cūttĭng<\/span>
\n\t\t\thēāvĕn<\/span>, | ĭmplācă|blĕ<\/span>
\n\t\t\tănd<\/span> shēēr<\/span>.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe Inconscient as the source and author of all
\n\t\t\tmaterial creation is one of the main discoveries of modern psychology, but it agrees with the idea of a famous Vedic hymn. In
\n\t\t\tthe Upanishads, Prajna, the Master of Sushupti, is the Ishwara and therefore the original Creator out of a superconscient sleep.
\n\t\t\tThe idea of the poem is that this creative Inconscient also is Shiva creating here life in matter out of an apparently
\n\t\t\tinconscient material trance as from above he creates all the worlds (not the material only) from a superconscient trance. The reality is
\n\t\t\ta supreme Consciousness 
\n\t\t\t\u2014  but that is veiled by the appearance on one side of the superconscient sleep, on the other of
\n\t\t\tthe material Inconscience. Here the emphasis is on the latter; the superconscient is only hinted at, not indicated,  \u2014  it is the
\n\t\t\tInfinity out of which comes the revealing Flame.  <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 555<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t<\/font> THE<\/font> LIFE<\/font> HEAVENS<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFurther modulations have been introduced in this poem 
\n\t\t\t\u2014  a greater use is made of tetra syllabic feet such as paeons, epitrites,di-iambs, double trochees, ionics and, once only, the antispast  \u2014  and in a few places the foot of three long syllables (molossus)
\n\t\t\thas
\n\t\t\tbeen  used, and in others a foot extending to five syllables (e.g.,
\n\t\t\tDelivered from grief).  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tScan:   <\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tĂ
\n\t\t\tlīfe<\/span> ŏf<\/span> |
\n\t\t\tĭntēnsĭtĭes<\/span> | wīde<\/span>,
\n\t\t\tĭmmūne<\/span><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t         Flōāts<\/span>
\n\t\t\tbĕhīnd<\/span> | thĕ<\/span>
\n\t\t\tēārth<\/span> ănd<\/span> |
\n\t\t\thĕr<\/span> līfe-frēt<\/span>,
\n\t\t\t       
\n\t\t\tĂ māgĭc<\/span> ŏf<\/span> |
\n\t\t\trēālms<\/span> māstĕred<\/span>
\n\t\t\tb<\/font><\/span>ў<\/span><\/font><\/span> | spēll<\/span> ănd<\/span>
\n\t\t\trūne<\/span>,<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t         Grāndĭōse<\/span>,
\n\t\t\tblīss|fŭl<\/span>, cōloŭred<\/span>,
\n\t\t\t| ĭncrĕāte<\/span>.
\n\t\t\t<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThere were two places in which at the time of writing
\n\t\t\tthere did not seem to me to be a satisfactory completeness and the addition of a stanza seemed to be called for  \u2014  one at the end
\n\t\t\tof the description of the Life Heavens, a stanza which would be a closing global description of the essence of the vital Heavens,
\n\t\t\tthe other (less imperatively called for) in the utterance of the Voice. There it is no doubt very condensed, but it cannot be otherwise.
\n\t\t\tI thought, however, that one stanza might be added hinting rather
\n\t\t\tthan stating the connection between the two extremes. The connection is between the Divine suppressed in its opposites and the Divine eternal in its own unveiled and undescended nature.
\n\t\t\tThe idea is that the other worlds are not evolutionary but typal and each presents in a limited perfection some aspect of the
\n\t\t\tInfinite, but each complete, perfectly satisfied in itself, not asking or aspiring for anything else, for self-exceeding of any kind.
\n\t\t\tThat aspiration, on the contrary, is self-imposed on the imperfection of Earth; the very fact of the Divine being there, but
\n\t\t\tsuppressed in its phenomenal opposites, compels an effort to arrive at the unveiled Divine  \u2014  by ascent, but also by a descent of the
\n\t\t\tDivine Perfection for evolutionary manifestation here. That is why the Earth declares itself a deeper Power than Heaven because it holds<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 556<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t<\/font>in itself that possibility implied in the presence of the
\n\t\t\tsuppressed Divine here, 
\n\t\t\t\u2014 which does not exist in the perfection of the vital (or even the mental) Heavens.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tJIVANMUKTA<\/font><\/b> <\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWritten in Alcaics. These Alcaics are not perhaps very
\n\t\t\torthodox. I have treated the close of the first two lines not as a dactyl but as a cretic and have taken the liberty in any stanza of
\n\t\t\tturning this into a double trochee. In one closing line I have started the dactylic run with two short preliminary syllables and there
\n\t\t\tis occasionally a dactyl or anapaest in unlawful places; the dactyls too are not all pure dactyls. The object is to bring in by
\n\t\t\tmodulations some variety and a more plastic form and easier run than strict orthodoxy could give. But in essence, I think, the
\n\t\t\talcaic movement remains in spite of these departures. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe basic form of this Alcaic would run,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tbut with an opening to other modulations. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe subject is the Vedantic ideal of the living liberated man  \u2014  jīvanmukta <\/i> \u2014  though perhaps I have given a pull towards
\n\t\t\tmy own ideal which the strict Vedantin would consider illegitimate.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tIN<\/font> HORIS<\/font> AETERNUM<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis poem on its technical side aims at finding a halfway house between free verse and regular metrical poetry. It is an
\n\t\t\tattempt to avoid the chaotic amorphousness of free verse and keep to a regular form based on the fixed number of stresses in each
\n\t\t\tline and part of a line while yet there shall be a great plasticity and variety in all the other elements of poetic rhythm, the
\n\t\t\tnumber of syllables, the management of the feet, if any, the distribution of the stress-beats, the changing modulation of the rhythm. In<\/i>  558<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 557<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t<\/font> Horis Aeternum <\/i>was meant as a first essay in this kind, a
\n\t\t\tvery simple and elementary model. The line here is cast into three parts, the first containing two stresses, the second and
\n\t\t\tthird each admitting three, four such lines rhymed constituting the stanza.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 558<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/font><\/font><\/td>\n

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

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

  Part Seven   Pondicherry Circa 1927 \u00ad 1947     Six Poems     The Bird of Fire   Gold-white wings a throb in…<\/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-3010","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\/3010","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=3010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3010\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}