-014_Sri Aurobindo^s Savitri and Tennysonian Blank Verse.htm SRI AUROBINDO'S SAVITRI AND TENNYSONIAN BLANK VERSE A LETTER I was much interested to read the views you have sent me of the two dons - one English, the other Irish - on Sri Aurobindo's Savitri. The first of these Academics seems to me rather misguided in his evaluation of the epic's blank verse. No doubt, he is right in saying that there was plenty of end-stopped blank verse in English before Savitri - but did you actually say that the only type had been the enjambed? Most probably, when you pointed out the "originality" of Sri Aurobindo's metrical form, you had more things in mind than merely its abste

-023_Dr. V. K. Gokak and Sri Aurobindo^s Savitri.htm DR. V. K. GOKAK AND SRI AUROBINDO'S SAVITRI In the Indian Express, Saturday, September 11, 1982, p. 14, Dr. V. K. Gokak was interviewed on his latest literary work, an epic in Kannada due to be published in November of the same year. Asked why, being an English scholar who had taught the language for more than three decades, he wrote his epic in Kannada, Dr. Gokak was quoted as replying: "...I was hesitant to write in a language which I have not mastered completely. Aurobindo who had mastered the language wrote his Savitri in English and, though it contained most beautiful passages, I felt the language was a bit awkward. If a schol

AGNI IN THE RIG-VEDA AND ASWAPATHY IN SAVITRI (SOME REFLECTIONS APROPOS OF A TERM COMMENTED UPON BY NOLINI KANTA GUPTA) 1 In the Mother India of August 15, 1976 Nolini Kanta Gupta has given a very pointed and appealing interpretation of a term in Savitri which had puzzled Huta and me and led us to consult him. The term occurs in the course of a description of the Yogic development which Aswapathy, Savitri's father, undergoes. The context runs: A Seer was born, a shining Guest of Time. For him mind's limiting firmament ceased above. In the griffin forefront of the Night and Day A gap was rent i

-007_Some Notes on Sri Aurobindo^s Poems.htm SOME NOTES ON SRI AUROBINDO'S POEMS1 Apropos of the incarnation of the Divine and the advent of the Age of Gold on the heels of the Iron Age after "the last fierce spasms of the dying past" have shaken the nations, as suggested at the end of In the Moonlight, we may quote the magnificent passage from Book III, Canto 4 of Savitri: A giant dance of Shiva tore the past, There was a thunder as of worlds that fall; Earth was o'errun with fire and the roar of Death Clamouring to slay a world his hunger had made; There was a clangour of Destruction's wings: The Titan's battle-cry was in my ears, Alarm and rumour shook

THE LONGEST SENTENCE IN ENGLISH POETRY1 The longest sentence in English poetry - 143 words and, if a compound is counted as two, 144 - is in Savitri, Book IV, Canto 3, p. 426 [p. 375]. We must understand, of course, that true sentence-length does not really depend on putting a full-stop as late as possible and substituting commas and semi-colons and colons for it wherever we can. The true length is organic. The construction is such that the components, however independent-seeming, are grammatically inseparable. Many of them are really subordinate clauses or else contain words that internally link them together, as against mere ext

THE BIGGEST PUZZLE IN THE TEXT OF SAVITRI 1 It is well known that a Critical Edition of Sri Aurobindo's epic is under preparation. The general guide-line is: "Follow the text" - the "text" signifying Sri Aurobindo's latest handwritten version or else his latest dictated matter. In regard to dictation some questions are natural because of possible mishearing. In regard to the manuscript there should theoretically be no question. On its authority a good number of what are termed "transmission errors" have been set right - that is, mistakes committed in copying out the occasionally difficult-to-read text and then repeated or sometimes

TWO CRITICS CRITICISED1 1 In the Illustrated Weekly of India (July 31, 1949) appeared a comment on Sri Aurobindo's poetry. It was by the periodical's editor, C. R. M., known to be an Irishman, in "Books and Comments" and was meant to review my study, The Poetic Genius of Sri Aurobindo. After calling my book interesting, C. R. M. went on to say: "For Mr. Sethna, Sri Aurobindo's Muse is a case of 'this side idolatry', and I am not so sure that genius is so rampant here as he claims. The merits seem to me to consist of a high level of spiritual utterance, abundant metrical skill, and a sound poetic sensitivity based on the classics and much a

SOME POINTS ABOUT POETRY The first canto of the greatest epic since Paradise Lost has at last seen the light! Savitri: a Legend and a Symbol makes its entry on the world-stage in the first eleven pages of Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual published from Calcutta on August 15. With the rare depth and magnificence of this poem of Sri Aurobindo's I have already dealt in a special essay in the Second Annual (recently reviewed in the All-India Weekly) of the Sri Aurobindo Circle of Bombay.1 Savitri marks a new age of mystical poetry, and all lovers of literature as well as mysticism will await with wonder-lit eyes further instalments of it. The first canto is accompan

-011_Sri Aurobindo^s Savitri, the Nature of Epic and the Expression of Mysticism in English Poetry.htm SRI AUROBINDO'S SAVITRI, THE NATURE OF EPIC AND THE EXPRESSION OF MYSTICISM IN ENGLISH POETRY A LETTER The script of your friend's projected lecture, incorporating your touches, on Sri Aurobindo's Savitri makes interesting reading and is surely helpful in several respects. Most of these are analytic, classificatory; but the labelling is done skilfully and catchingly. I can understand his dissatisfaction with the passages he has quoted from Sisir Ghose, Srinivasa Iyengar and myself. But I don't know whether it is right to pull out a passage from me like that, as if

ON SRI AUROBINDO'S SAVITRI On Sri Aurobindo's SAVITRI Part One: Essays AMAL KIRAN (K.D. SETHNA) Clear Ray Trust Puducherry - 605 012, India First Published 2010 (Typeset in 10.5 /13 Palatine.) Price: Rs. 380/- ISBN: 978-81-87916-10-9 © Clear Ray Trust Published by Clear Ray Trust, Puducherry - 605 012 Printed at All India Press, Puducherry DTP by Prisma, Auroville - 605 101 To AMAL KIRAN mentor and guide, in gratitude and respect