A METAPHYSICAL POET TO HIS MISTRESS

Not for the light of limbs

But for the peace

Folding, when rapture dims,

Heart-poignancies—

The lull of ardour spent,

Which like a wind

Of some cool firmament

Blows out the mind,

Leaving our gaze a night

Timelessly deep

As if all heaven's height

Sank asleep—

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O love, for that abyss'

Unnamable sky

The soul from kiss to kiss

Wings on, a cry

Of passion to be freed

From its own fire

And hurl away the seed

Of earth-desire!...

Though far the eternal day

Pure vigils view,

Its secret in my clay

I plumb with you.

Sri Aurobindo's Comment

"No, it is not weak or merely clever. It is a fine poem, the thought perfectly expressed—the thought itself may be 'queer', but it expresses something which people sometimes vaguely feel, a seeking in earthly desire for something beyond that desire. The lines marked are very striking and have a strong turn of intuitive revelation. The rest though it has not that originality is very felicitously phrased and rhythmed and has a certain finality or definitiveness in it which is always an achievement in poetry."

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