NEAR AND FAR

I see your limbs aglow

With passionate will,

But touching their white flesh I know

Your love's intangible—

As if each fiery line

Of yearning clay

Brought only a mirror-shine

Of beacons far away!

Your flames unquenchable dart

Yet burn not by their kiss:

They flash around my heart

A dream of distances—

A rich wave-aureole

That lures beyond its tune

Of time the lustre-haunted soul

To a paradisal moon.

Sri Aurobindo's Comment

"It is a very fine lyrical poem, expressing with perfection what it had to say—it has the same quality as other lyrics of the kind formerly written by you—an entire precision and ease of language and rhythm, a precision that is intuitive and suggestive."

(Has this poem too "brainy" an air ? What do you think of the turn in the last stanza ?)

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