{"id":3024,"date":"2013-07-13T01:45:27","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3024"},"modified":"2013-11-28T15:01:24","modified_gmt":"2013-11-28T23:01:24","slug":"20-poems-from-manuscripts-circa-1900-1906-vol-02-collected-poems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/02-collected-poems\/20-poems-from-manuscripts-circa-1900-1906-vol-02-collected-poems","title":{"rendered":"-20_Poems from Manuscripts Circa 1900 – 1906.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
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\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPoems from Manuscripts <\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nCirca 1900 \u00ad 1906<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\n

\n

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\n
\nTo the Boers<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n(Written during the progress of the Boer War.<\/i>)<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nO Boers, you have dared much and much endured<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFor freedom, your strong simple hearts inured<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo danger and privation nor so made<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAs by death’s daily grasp to be dismayed,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNor numbers nor disasters in the field,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNor to o’erwhelming multitudes to yield.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt was no secondary power you faced,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut she who has the whole wide world embraced,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEngland whose name is as the thunder, she<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhose navies are the despots of the sea,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNapoleon’s conqueror whose fair dreadful face<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGreat nations loathe and fear and choose disgrace<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRather than meet in wild and dangerous war<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tVictors of Waterloo and Trafalgar.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut you, a band of armed herdsmen small,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFeared not her strength, her pride imperial,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNor all the union of her empire huge,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNor all her barking cannon, her deluge<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOf bullets, nor her horsehooves, nor her lance,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer boundless wealth, her bayonets aglance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYou met her on her hills and overthrew,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYou crossed her by her streams and smote and slew.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut soon in anger like the Ocean foiled<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor fiercer swift invasion she recoiled<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd multiplied her force until her troops<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTenfold outnumbering your warlike groups<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tResurging rolled you back and seized your towns<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd spread like locusts over fields and downs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNot even then were you dismayed, not then<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWould tamely yield, but with a proud disdain<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRejected proffered servitude and base.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTherefore are you participants in praise<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nPage \u2013 247<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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\nWith Armin and Viriathus; you stand<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe last of Freedom’s children and your land<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer latest foothold upon earth; nor can<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYour rugged pastoral mood disguise the man<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIdentical at Salamis who waged<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUnequal battle and in salt floods assuaged<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe Persian’s lust of rule. Miltiades<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIs grown your brother; the strong Tyrolese<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHold out their hands to you across the grave.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFrom Rouen’s burning pile one watches; brave<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHofer from sad Verona; in eastern skies<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMewar’s unconquerable Rajpoots rise.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey too preferred strong liberty and rude<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTo a splendid ignominy of servitude.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor liberty they gave to alien hands<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTheir faery city and their fertile lands,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThemselves to death, their women to the flame,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd in wild woods and mountains harbouring came<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOften like sudden fire upon the foe:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSo for long decades fought, exile and woe<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAccepting, till the equal hand of God<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRestored to their hereditary abode.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYou too have greatly dared, and but that Fate<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFor her remoter objects obdurate<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAverted her unmoved and marble gaze,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNo human force had power to erase<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFrom Earth’s free peoples. Not the armed pride<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf England but decrees supreme o’erride<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis stubborn nation. Farm and smiling field<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPlundered and burned no more your sustenance yield,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYour chiefs are taken one by one, your bands<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWasted with battle, your great war-weary hands<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAvail no longer and your women die<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn England’s camps by famine miserably,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDisease and famine, hunger’s squalid brood.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe smiling babes who should prolong your blood,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPale victims flit, to death’s unbottomed maw<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\nDevoted by the conqueror’s cynic law.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd must you perish from earth’s record then,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nO nation of indomitable men?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLook not towards Europe! Europe’s heart is dead.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHard atheisms, selfish lusts instead<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUsurp her bosom; not honest blood but gold<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRuns liquid in her veins: for she has sold<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHer soul to commerce, Mammon is her creed,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe ledger lined her Bible, and Christ must bleed<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIn plundered nations that the modern Jew<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMay prosper. This is not Europe that you knew<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhen from the clash of mighty States you went<\/span><\/p>\n

\nInto harsh sultry deserts well-content.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFor all her swift and sovran moods of old<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAre changed into a reckoning spirit cold<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd a hysteric wrath that dare not strike<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe strong man armed to meet the blow. She, like<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA trembling woman who puts o’er her shift<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHard armour, wears the sword she dare not lift,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCovering her coward heart with splendid arms:<\/span><\/p>\n

\nClothed as in adamant shakes with pale alarms,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tArmed as with hell-fire fronts not answering shells,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBlusters and trembles, menaces and pales.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTherefore her navies case in triple steel,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTherefore her legions grow apace; her heel<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOf iron breaks the weak ones of the world,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut not against the strong her flags unfurled<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tShall flaunt the tempest, nor her hissing flail<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf bullets thresh familiar hills and hail<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOf shells in Ocean sibilant be drowned<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhile navies rend and sink her coasts around.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEasier the naked African to quell<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr on the ill-armed Mongolian shot and shell<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTo lavish and with coward murder chase<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr with strong lust invade a virtuous race.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMeanwhile her prating conferences increase<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd gild her terrors with the name of peace.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nAll these high nations who with paeans loud<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAcclaimed your victories, the bitter crowd<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the loose tongues who spat their venom base<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIn England’s evil hour on England’s face<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAvenging thus decades of craven fear,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNot one shall dare to speak high words with her<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFor your sake, none shall raise his armed hand<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAgainst the inheritors of sea and land.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNor shall the American’s pale feverish face<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBe lifted from his heaps of gold and trays<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOf silver. Deal not with such things as these,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYou who are men, not gibbering shades. Increase<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tStrength rather, of yourselves and Heaven be sure;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFirm make your hearts, magnanimous to endure<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore than loud ruin. Though at last you yield,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYet nowise vain your firmness in the field,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDaring and all the bitter sweat of blood.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBoers, you have sown the veldt with greatness, stood<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIrrigating from your own veins farmstead<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd kopje and with the bodies of your dead<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tManured them: women and young children gave<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTheir lives to help the seedtime of the brave.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tShall harvest fail you? No, the Power is just<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat veils Himself behind the world, not thrust<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFrom puissance by the maxim’s brutal roar<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNor to the shrapnel gives His sceptre o’er.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe harvest that you sowed, your sons shall reap,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStern liberty; nor the example sleep<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tImprisoned in the Afric seas, but hurled<\/span><\/p>\n

\nReverberate through the upstarting world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd the dead nations in the East shall rise<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd they that slumber in the West; with eyes<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDismayed the elder Empires overgrown<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShall feel a sudden spirit breathe, a tone<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOf challenge hearkening know, at last awake,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEarth was not wide for one sole nation’s sake.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFor this He fashioned you Who built the stars,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\nFor this He sifted you with searching wars.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUpon the Frisian waters bleak and isles<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhere the cold northern Ocean steel-like smiles,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSavage and wide and bare, a nation sparse<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBleak-fishing under the chill midnight stars,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFrom the wild piercing blast your fathers drew<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe breath that loves the desert. To them grew<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe Saxon dour and the hard German rude,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd of that stubborn ore unbrittle, crude,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGod hammered Him a sword with giant strokes<\/span><\/p>\n

\nUpon the anvil of the Ocean rocks;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHis fiercest furnace piled the ore to try;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOften He tempered it, often laid by<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUnknown of all to harden and anneal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe made it not of the fine Damasc steel<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tComely to see or polished dazzling bright,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA dancing splendour and a pitiless light,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNor as in Jaipur worked with genial art,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut sheer and stark to rive the adamant heart.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWith this He smote the Iberian and the Gaul;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis from his scabbard leaps whene’er o’er all<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHis earth of various use in various lands<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOne domination spreads out selfish hands.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNot for its own sake is the falchion keen,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNot for self-greatness was it forged, through skin,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFlesh, heart and bone of giant power to cleave.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts flash is as the lightning on the eve<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOf the stupendous storm that shall uproot<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSome oak of empire. When Heaven grows a clot<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOf darkness, then God’s dagger rips the sky.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSmall is the blade and narrow to the eye<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe rift; but through it seas of light shall pour<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd through it the world-shaking thunders roar<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd from the storm the sweet fresh day have birth.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhen Spain was mighty and cruel and all earth<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDarkened by her huge shadow, your fathers first<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDefied her puissance;  \u2014  they the chains accursed<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nAsunder rent and braved the bigot’s flame<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd braved the unvanquished terrors of her name.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen England grew, then France arose. The one<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRepulsed her from the sea’s dominion<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMaking the narrow floods an empire’s tomb<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhen the shot-ridden galleons through the gloom<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf heaven and the wrath of spuming seas<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFled through grey Ocean and the Hebrides,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGod’s anger swift behind. Then was her hand<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLoosened from France’s throat; the smiling land<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHealed her deep wounds and from her masculine strife<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOf mighty spirits forged united life<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNow first; so, her high natural vigour found,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHurled the wide-sprawling Titan to the ground.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut ’twas stern Holland shore his feet of clay<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOpening to these the splendours of their day.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNext when great Louis’ grandiose mind and high<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tO’ervaulted all the West like God’s own sky,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYour fathers first opposed their petty strength<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTo his huge destinies; nor defeat, nor length<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf weary struggle could out-tire nor break<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTheir spirit obstinate for freedom’s sake,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhen Nassau led them. He was such a man<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAs you love best to set in your stern van,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWordless and lonely, stubborn as the hills,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWith nature strong to brook tremendous ills<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn silence, dowered with vigilant brain and nerve<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThat never from the goal consent to swerve<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut tame down fiercest Fate as men may school<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSome dangerous lion to constraining rule.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe sowed the seed; strong England reaped the fruit,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBringing down showers with the loud cannon’s bruit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen did she grow indeed. Iberia proud<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBeing humbled she upon the Ocean loud<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer dwarfish stature launched, but now she trod<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBoth hemispheres, now giantlike bestrode<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe Atlantic and her crest was in the skies,<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nEarth but a market for her merchandise.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe double Indies all their wealth disgorged<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo swell her and her thunders iron-forged<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPossessed the hither and the farther seas:<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe strewed their waters with her enemies.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEver she grew and as when Rome was great,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNo limit seemed of her supreme estate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFrore Canada to the Austral heats she joins<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd peoples Earth from her exhaustless loins.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAsia and the equator were her spoil,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer footstool, or a workshop for her toil.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNor sole she walked, but Europe emulous<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhere she had trampled followed orgulous<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLike dwarfs behind a giant, gleaning wide<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFootholds too small for her gigantic stride.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThey too grow great, they too are sons of God<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWho meant, they say, all earth for their abode<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd increase; others the Almighty made<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTheir menial peoples, stamped with yellow shade<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOr dark, savage of heart, of reason weak.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNay, but their lords shall make them wise and meek!<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tInferior races, let them serve and crouch<\/span><\/p>\n

\nObedient, with the kennel for their couch,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tToo happy if but spared the knout and rod.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYet shall the proud blasphemers know that God<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFor nobler uses to immortal man<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis body’s garb designed when He began<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTo build the planets. His foreseeing eyes<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf ease and its corroding puissance wise,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tReserving to more memorable blows,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFrom you His chosen stock your sternest chose<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd hardest in the grain and drove them forth<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFrom their too populous and prosperous North<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOver to torrid regions burning far<\/span><\/p>\n

\nUnder a fierier sun and brighter star.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThere had He worked His Amazulu hordes<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo His great purpose ‘neath their savage lords,<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nChaka the brain of war and Dingaan;  \u2014  there<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYour steel was once again in the red flare<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf that strong furnace tested and annealed,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd that its hard rough temper glints might yield<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf fire, into its molten ore He sank<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe Celt’s swift force and genius of the Frank:<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNor in the wave-washed regions of the south<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAllowed your home, but to the higher drouth<\/span><\/p>\n

\nScourged northward half the iron-minded brood<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIn the high hills and the veldt’s solitude<\/span><\/p>\n

\n‘Twixt Vaal and the Limpopo. There you stand<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFighting for liberty and fatherland,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nO little people of a mighty birth,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe huge colossus who bestrides the earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTherefore let not defeat your hearts dismay,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFor He that made you, knows His hour, 
\n\t\t\t\u2014  today<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr after Time grows old, the Spirit high<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPrepares His mighty ends unwaveringly.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNot by the fluent tongue is Freedom earned,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNor lightly, but when her spirit long has burned<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn the strong bosom fronting giant fears<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd wrestling with defeat and hostile years,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAntagonist of its opposing fate,  \u2014 <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSuch hearts earn mighty Freedom for their mate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSuch hearts are yours and will not falter. Firm<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYour destiny stands assured its strenuous term<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn God’s great keeping who His deathless trust<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tKeeps for the race when your strong hearts are dust,  \u2014
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nFreedom that blooms not but upon the grave<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhere they who loved her sleep, her slaughtered brave.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWho art thou that roamest<\/span><\/p>\n

Over mountains dim<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIn the haunts of evening,<\/span><\/p>\n

Sister of the gleam!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhiter than the jasmines,<\/span><\/p>\n

Roses dream of thee;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSoftly with the violets<\/span><\/p>\n

How thine eyes agree!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAs thy raven tresses<\/span><\/p>\n

Night is not so black,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFrom thy moonbright shoulders<\/span><\/p>\n

Floating dimly back.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFeet upon the hilltops,<\/span><\/p>\n

Lilies of delight,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWith their far-off radiance<\/span><\/p>\n

Tinge the evening bright.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIn the vesper calmness<\/span><\/p>\n

Lightly like a dove,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWith thy careless eyelids<\/span><\/p>\n

Confident of love,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAs of old thou comest<\/span><\/p>\n

Down the mountains far,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSmiling from what gardens,<\/span><\/p>\n

Glowing from what star?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRacing from the hilltops<\/span><\/p>\n

Like a brilliant stream,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBurning in the valleys<\/span><\/p>\n

Marble-bright of limb,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 255<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nSinging in the orchards<\/span><\/p>\n

When the shadows fall,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWith thy crooning anklets<\/span><\/p>\n

To my heart that call,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nBy the darkening window<\/span><\/p>\n

Like a slender fire,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWith the night behind thee,<\/span><\/p>\n

Daughter of desire!<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nOpen wide the doorway,<\/span><\/p>\n

Bid my love come in<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWith the night behind her<\/span><\/p>\n

And the dawn within.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nTake, O radiant fingers,<\/span><\/p>\n

Heart and hands of me,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHide them in thy bosom,<\/span><\/p>\n

O felicity!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nTo the Ganges<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHearken, Ganges, hearken, thou that sweepest golden to the sea,<\/span><\/p>\n

Hearken, Mother, to my voice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFrom the feet of Hari with thy waters pure thou leapest free,<\/span><\/p>\n

Waters colder-pure than ice.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOn
\n\t\t\tHim\u00e2loy ‘s grandiose summits upright in his cirque of stones<\/span><\/p>\n

Shiva sits in breathless air,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhere the outcast seeks his refuge, where the demon army moans,<\/span><\/p>\n

Ganges erring through his hair.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDown the snowwhite mountains speeding, the immortal peaks and cold,<\/span><\/p>\n

Crowd thy waves untouched by man.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFrom Gungotry through the valleys next their icy tops were rolled,<\/span><\/p>\n

Bursting through Shivadry ran.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 256<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nIn Benares’ stainless city by defilement undefiled<\/span><\/p>\n

Ghauts and temples lightly touched<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWith thy fingers as thou ranst, laughed low in pureness like a child<\/span><\/p>\n

To his mother’s bosom clutched.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nWhere the steps of Rama wandered, where the feet of Krishna came,<\/span><\/p>\n

There thou flowest, there thy hand<\/span><\/p>\n

\nClasps us, Bhagirathie, Jahnavie or Gunga, and thy name<\/span><\/p>\n

Holier makes the Aryans’ land.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nBut thou leavest Aryavurtha, but thou leapest to the seas<\/span><\/p>\n

In thy hundred mighty streams;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNor in the unquiet Ocean vast thy grandiose journeyings cease,<\/span><\/p>\n

Mother, say thy children’s dreams.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nDown thou plungest through the Ocean, far beneath its oozy bed<\/span><\/p>\n

In Patala’s leaden gloom<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMoaning o’er her children’s pain our mother, Ganges of the dead,<\/span><\/p>\n

Leads our wandering spirits home.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nMighty with the mighty still thou dwelledst, goddess high and pure;<\/span><\/p>\n

Iron Bh\u00eeshma  was thy son,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWho against ten thousand rushing chariots could in war endure;<\/span><\/p>\n

Many heroes fled from one.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDevavrath the mighty,
\n\t\t\tBh\u00eeshma  with his oath of iron power,<\/span><\/p>\n

Smilingly who gave up full<\/span><\/p>\n

\nJoy of human life and empire, that his father’s wish might flower<\/span><\/p>\n

And his father’s son might rule.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nWho were these that thronged thereafter? wherefore came these puny hearts<\/span><\/p>\n

Apter for the cringing slave,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWrangling, selfish, weak and treacherous, vendors of their nobler parts,<\/span><\/p>\n

Sorry food for pyre and grave?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 257<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nO but these are men of mind not yet with Europe’s brutal mood alloyed,<\/span><\/p>\n

Poets singing in their chains,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPreachers teaching manly slavery, speakers thundering in the void.<\/span><\/p>\n

Motley wear these men of brains!<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nWell it is for hound and watchdog fawning at a master’s feet,<\/span><\/p>\n

Cringing, of the whip afraid!<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWell it is for linnet caged to make with song his slavery sweet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Man for other ends was made.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nMan the arrogant, the splendid, man the mighty wise and strong,<\/span><\/p>\n

Born to rule the peopled earth,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShall he bear the alien’s insult, shall he brook the tyrant’s wrong<\/span><\/p>\n

Like a thing of meaner birth?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSreepoor in the east of Chand and
\n\t\t\tK\u00e9dar, bright with Mogul blood,<\/span><\/p>\n

And the Kings of Aracan<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd the Atlantic pirates helped that hue, 
\n\t\t\t\u2014  its ruined glory flood<\/span><\/p>\n

K\u00eertinasha’s waters wan.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nBuried are our cities; fallen the apexed dome, the Indian arch;<\/span><\/p>\n

In Chitore the jackals crowd:<\/span><\/p>\n

\nKrishna’s Dwarca sleeps for ever, o’er its ruined bastions march<\/span><\/p>\n

All the Oceans thundering loud.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nStill, yet still the fire of Kali on her ancient altar burns<\/span><\/p>\n

Smouldering under smoky pall,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the deep heart of her peoples to their Mighty Mother turns,<\/span><\/p>\n

Listening for her Titan call.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nYet Pratapaditya’s great fierce spirit shall in might awake<\/span><\/p>\n

In Jessore he loved and made,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSitaram the good and mighty for his well-loved people’s sake<\/span><\/p>\n

Leave the stillness and the shade.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 258<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nAnd Bengal the wide and ancient where the Senas swayed of old<\/span><\/p>\n

Up to far Benares pure,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe shall lead the Aryan peoples to the mighty doom foretold<\/span><\/p>\n

And her glory shall endure.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nBy her heart of quick emotion, by her brain of living fire,<\/span><\/p>\n

By her vibrant speech and great,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe shall lead them, they shall see their destiny in her warm desire<\/span><\/p>\n

Opening all the doors of Fate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nBy the shores of Brahmaputra or where Ganges nears the sea,<\/span><\/p>\n

Even now a flame is born<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhich shall kindle all the South to brilliance and the North shall be<\/span><\/p>\n

Lighted up as with the morn.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nAnd once more this Aryavurtha fit for heavenly feet to tread,<\/span><\/p>\n

Free and holy, bold and wise,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShall lift up her face before the world and she whom men thought dead,<\/span><\/p>\n

Into strength immortal rise.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nNot in icy lone Gungotry nor by Kashi’s holy fanes,<\/span><\/p>\n

Mother, hast thou power to save<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOnly, nor dost thou grow old near Sagar, nor our vileness stains,<\/span><\/p>\n

Ganges, thy celestial wave.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nDukkhineswar, Dukkhineswar, wonderful predestined pile,<\/span><\/p>\n

Tell it to our sons unborn,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhere the night was brooding darkest and the curse was on the soil<\/span><\/p>\n

Heaviest, God revealed the morn.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 259<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nSuddenly out from the wonderful East<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSuddenly out from the wonderful East like a woman exulting<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDawn stepped forth with a smile on her lips, and the glory of morning<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHovered over the hills; then sweet grew air with the breezes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSweet and keen as a wild swift virgin; the wind walked blithely,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLow was the voice of the leaves as they rustled and talked with the river,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGanges, the sacred river. Down from the northlands crowding,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTouching the steps of the ghauts with the silver tips of their fingers<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLightly the waters ran and talked to each other of sunshine,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLightly they laughed. But high on his stake impaled by the roadway<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHung Mandavya the mighty in marble deep meditation,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSepulchred, dumb; on his either side were the thieves, immobile.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey were dead, made free from cruelty, ceasing from anguish,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd forgetting the thirst. But past them Ganges the mighty,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFirst of the streams of the earth, our Mother, remembering the ages,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPoured to the sea.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEarly at dawn by her ghauts the women of Mithila gathered.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThere they filled their gurgling jars, or gilding the Ganges<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBathed in her waters and laughed as they bathed there clamouring, dashing<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDew of her coolness in eyes of each other: the banks called sweetly<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMad with the musical laughter of girls and joy of their crying,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLow melodious cries. As when in a wood on the hillsides<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThousands of bulbuls flitting and calling, eating the wild plums,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFilling the ear with sweetness carry from treetop to treetop<\/span><\/p>\n

\nVermeil of crest and scarlet of tail and small brown bodies<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFlitting and calling, calling and flitting, full of sweet clamour,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFull of the wine of life, even such was the sweetness and clamour,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWomen bathing close by the ghauts of the radiant Ganges,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGolden-limbed or white or darker than olives when ripest,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLovely of face or of mood, but all sweethearted and happy<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAryan women. One there seemed of another moulding<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWho was aloof from the crowd and the chaos of cheerful faces.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe at one side of the stairway slowly like one half-musing<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBathed there, hiding her face in the deep cool bosom of waters,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLosing herself in Ganges, or let its pearl drops dribble<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 260<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nQuietly down through the mystical night of her tresses on gleaming<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tShoulders, betwixt her great breasts noble as hills at noontide<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBack to their hurrying home: nor heeded the laughter near her.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOnly at times when the clamour grew high, she would look up smiling<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSuch a slow sweet serious smile as a tender mother<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWatching her children at play might smile forgetting the sorrow<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDown in her own still patient heart where the deep tears gathered<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSwell unwept, till they turn to a sea of sorrowful pity.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nOn the Mountains<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

Immense retreats of silence and of gloom,<\/span><\/p>\n

Hills of a sterile grandeur, rocks that sublime<\/span><\/p>\n

In bareness seek the blue sky’s infinite room<\/span><\/p>\n

With their coeval snows untouched by Time!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I seek your solemn spaces! Let me at last<\/span><\/p>\n

Forgotten of thought through days immemorable<\/span><\/p>\n

Voiceless and needless keep your refuge vast,<\/span><\/p>\n

Growing into the peace in which I dwell.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For like that Soul unmade you seem to brood<\/span><\/p>\n

Who sees all things emerge but none creates,<\/span><\/p>\n

Watching the ages from His solitude,<\/span><\/p>\n

Lone, unconcerned, remote. You to all Fates<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Offer an unchanged heart, unmoved abide,<\/span><\/p>\n

Wordless, acceptant, sovereignly still.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a soul in us as silent, wide,<\/span><\/p>\n

Mere, uncreative, imperturbable.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 261<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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

  Poems from Manuscripts Circa 1900 \u00ad 1906     To the Boers   (Written during the progress of the Boer War.)   O Boers,…<\/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-3024","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\/3024","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=3024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9564,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3024\/revisions\/9564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}