Sri Aurobindo's Poetry - Text guide
Author: Rod Hemsell
- Sri Aurobindo’s Theory of Quantitative Metre (1)
1.1 Text: The Future Poetry (FP, 2000)
1.1.1 p. 322-323 “…the powerful sweep, the divine rush…
“…a technique of Nature flowing spontaneously…
1.2 Text: Letters on Poetry, Literature and Art (2002)
1.2.1 p. 1 “Poetry, or at any rate a truly poetic poetry, comes always from some subtle plane through the creative vital…
1.2.2 p. 3 “If the substance, rhythm, form, words come down all together ready-formed from the plane of poetic creation…
1.2.3 p. 4 “…the Overmind, for instance, is the ultimate source of intuition, illumination, or heightened power…
1.2.4 p. 79 “The mantra is a word of power…
1.2.5 p. 81 “A new art of words demands a new technique…
1.3 Text: Collected Poems (1999)
1.3.1 p. 524 “Ahana” (a reading) (pause 49.10-52.10)
1.4 Text: FP
1.4.1 p. 332 “If we are to get a true theory of quantity, the ear must find it; it cannot be determined by mental fictions or by reading with the eye… (end 59.64)
2. The Theory of Quantitative Metre (2)
2.1 Text: FP (pp.324-342)
2.1.1 p. 324 “The way was long…
2.1.2 p. 325 “Cover her face… (pause 30.00-35.10)
2.1.3 p. 325 “The language used…
2.1.4 p. 326 “In all these instances, it will be seen that…
2.1.5 p. 377 “Descent” ( a reading) (end 1.08)
3. The Theory of Quantitative Metre (3)
3.1 Text: FP
3.1.1 p. 376 “The Witness and the wheel”
“Who art thou in the heart comrade of man who sitst
August, watching his works, watching his joys and griefs
Unmoved, careless of pain, careless of death and fate?” (pause 28.0)
3.1.2 p. 332-333 “If we are to get a true theory of quantity…
3.1.3 p. 335 “One and unarmed in the car… (pause 1.01.58)
3.1.4 p. 387 (ILION) “The Herald” ( a reading) (1.02.17-1.11.17)
4. The Theory of Quantitative Metre (4)
4.1 Text: FP “The importance of sound to the theory of mantra”
4.1.1 p. 376 “The Witness and the Wheel” (pause 31.40-32.10)
4.1.2 p. 346 “Even if the new forms are only…
4.1.3 p. 347 “A free use of modulation… (stop 1.04)
4.1.4 p. 383 “Ascent” (a reading) (1.06-1.09)
5. The Meaning and Practice of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga of Poetry (1)
5.1 Text: FP
5.1.1 p. 383 “The Silence”
5.1.2 p. 384 “Beyond the Silence” (pause 32.2-33.0)
5.1.3 p. 384 “One with the transcendent…
5.1.4 p. 277 FP “The lyrical impulse…
5.1.5 p. 282 “The intimate and intuitive poetry of the future…
5.2 Text: Collected Poems5.2.1 p. 143 “The witness Spirit”
5.2.2 “The Hidden Plan” (a reading) (end 1.01.4)
6. The Meaning of Sri Aurobindo’s Poetry (2)
6.1 Text: FP “Form and Spirit”
6.1.1 p. 283-284 “The soul of man…
6.1.2 p. 285-286 “The spirit and intention…
6.1.3 p. 289 “The words which we use in our speech…
6.1.4 p. 290 “The degree of word force…clear adequacy…
6.1.5 p. 291 “The second power…a more powerful expression…
6.1.6 p. 292 “A richer, subtler, and truer poetic effectivity…
6.1.7 p. 295 “The genius of the poet…
6.1.8 p. 298 “The voice of poetry comes from a region above us…
6.1.9 p. 348 “An unconsciously quantitative free verse in Whitman…
6.1.10 p. 349 “Come lovely and soothing death… (stop 54.10)
6.2 Text: The Complete Works of P. B. Shelley
“The Revolt of Islam” (a reading) (55-1.21)
7. The Meaning of Sri Aurobindo’s Poetry (3)
7.1 Text: FP “Form and Spirit”
7.1.1 p.286 “The future poetry will follow this direction…the epic journey of the soul…
7.2 Text: Savitri (1996)
7.2.1 p. 173 “As one who…
7.2.2 p. 172 ”Adventuring once more… (pause 30.20-31.20)
7.2.3 p. 495 “Then journeying forward…
7.2.4 p. 498 “Here was a quiet country…
7.2.5 p. 500 “So she fared on across her silent self…
7.2.6 p. 501 “O Savitri, from thy hidden soul we come…
7.2.7 p. 503 “Here from a low and prone and listless ground…
7.2.8 “The Triple Soul-Forces” (stop 1.02)
7.2.9 “The man of sorrows… (a reading) (1.04-1.13.2)
8. The Meaning of Sri Aurobindo’s Poetry (4)
8.1 Text: Savitri
8.1.1 Commentary on three thematic structures: the soul’s journey, sacrifice, and the process or practice of stillness...
8.1.2 p.17 “There is a darkness in terrestrial things… (pause 26.09-27.15)
8.1.3 p. 340 “Adept of the self-born unfailing line…
8.1.4 p. 444 “He who would save himself lives bare and calm…
8.1.5 p. 488 “At first out of the busy hum of mind…
8.1.6 p. 74 “Admitted through a curtain of bright mind…
8.1.7 p. 78 “His soul retired from all that he had done…
8.1.8 p. 80 “In the hushed precincts of a vaster plan… (end 1.07.10)
9. The Mantric Power of Sri Aurobindo’s Poetry (1)
9.1 Text: Savitri
9.1.1 p. 476 “I am thy portion here charged with thy work… (pause 31.0-31.50)
9.1.2 p. 522 “At first she stepped into a night of God…
9.1.3 p. 536 “Only her soul remained, its emptied stage…
“Fear not to be nothing that thou mayst be all…
“Annul thyself that only God may be. (stop 1.04.25)
10. The Mantric Power of Sri Aurobindo’s Poetry (2)
10.1 Text: Savitri Bk 7 Cn 7 “The Cosmic Spirit”
10.1.1 (omit starting discussion 0-21.10)
10.1.2 p. 552 “An impersonal emptiness walked and spoke in her…
10.1.3 p. 553 “Impassive the body claimed not its own voice…
10.1.4 p. 554 “But now the unmoving wide spiritual space… (pause 52.05-54.0)
10.2 Text: Savitri Bk 3 Cn 3 “The House of Spirit”
10.2.1 p. 315 “In the unapproachable stillness of his soul…
10.2.2 p. 320 “And Thought potent no more…
10.2.3 p. 322 “Empty grew Nature’s wide community. (stop 1.14.36)
11. Understanding Savitri as Yoga Mantra (3)
11.1 Text: Savitri “The Book of Everlasting Day”
11.1.1 p. 693 “O living power of the incarnate word… (pause 34.31-36.26)
11.1.2 p. 696 “The form of things had ceased…
11.1.3 p. 697 “Then after silence a still and blissful cry… (stop 1.04)
12. The Epic Form, Mantra, and Overmind Truth (4)
12.1 Text: ILION (Collected Poems)
12.1.2 p. 425 “Ilion is vanquished then…
12.1.3 p. 448 “Here in a chamber of luminous privacy…
12.1.4 p. 498 “So in the courts of heaven… (end 1.12.15)