NIGHT No more the press and play of light release Thrilling bird-news between high columned trees. Upon the earth a blank of slumber drops: Only cicadas toil in grassy shops— But all their labours seem to cry "Peace, peace." Nought travels down the roadway save the breeze; And though beyond our gloom—throb after throb— Gathers the great heart of a silver mob, There is no haste in heaven, no frailty mars The very quiet business of the stars. Sri Aurobindo's Comment "It is very successful—the last two lines are very fine and the rest have their perfection. I should call it a mixture of inspiration and cleverness—or perhaps inge

MYSTIC MOTHER Seeing you walk our little ways, they wonder That I who scorn the common loves of life Should kneel to You in absolute surrender, Deeming Your visible perfection wife Unto my spirit's immortality. They think I have changed one weakness for another, Because they mark not the new birth of me- This body which by You, the Mystic Mother, Has now become a child of my vast soul! Loving Your feet's earth-visitation, I Find each heart-throb miraculously flower Out of the unplumbable God-mystery Behind dark clay; and, hour by dreamful hour, Upbear that fragrance like an aureole. Sri Aurobindo's Comment "Exc

-068_Love^s Triumph.htm LOVE'S TRIUMPH O face of scorn, you winter not my will: This heart grew brighter when your breath's proud chill Flung my diffuse life-blood more richly in! Now mystic reveries halo mortal din: No longer now the outward-burning stress, The eternal Spirit's self-forgetfulness— But through a superhuman quietude The timeless secret of each rhythm is heard. Love turns a living ether's infinite mood; Your beauty's call, a brief and flickering word Of clay, becomes in that divine expanse Truth-whitenesses clasped by a hush of trance. Sri Aurobindo's Comment "The mental is no doubt prominent, but insp

GLOAM-INFINITES Gloam-innnites of trance!—but like a wound Of vacancy unto my mortal heart Came that aloof immeasurable peace. The ear—a cavern lonely, echoless— Waited in fear; then suddenly the spell Of unknown firmaments broke to a close Chirrup of some late passing bird, which drew All the void dark and dreadful mystery Into the music of one passionate kiss Upon my blinded dream. I woke to feel A human face yearning out of the vast. Sri Aurobindo's Comment "It is very fine. The first three lines are the Higher Mind rising into the Illumined and are very powerful. The rest is of the Higher Mind, except it may

THE SACRED FIRE O keep the sacred fire A prisoner poise With walls that never wake To earthly voice. So delicate and small This undefiled Epiphany of joy, This golden child, That like a freezing blast The unfruitful power Of stormy mind will quench The burning flower. Page-91 Breathe tenderly your love: Feed the pure flame By secret offerings Of one far Name Whose rhythms make more rich That smiling face Of angel glow within The heart's embrace— Until the dreamy hue Grows wide enough To flash upon time's chill A warrior laugh Piercing through

COSMIC RHYTHMS Now cosmic rhythms are a laughter in my pulse, For the heart stands back immense and knows no aim, Cool core of a body of tortuous paths to power. My blood is the singing attar of that Rose Rooted in rest beyond all universe. Seraphs are crossing my brain that is wonder-wide, Smiling to see even here an Eye like the sun, And, where they halt, my love's touch breaks out wings. All is perfection, thought and word and tune, Because the Ineffable shines through each interspace. Page-77

3 THE FALL Our spirit is a paradise blown down, A sun deflowered, a leprosy of light; But all its crumbling sacrificial sparks Drop from the inviolate ether to arouse An earth-apocalypse slumbering unlit, A brazier of giant mystery Lost like a mouth of dream whose tongue lacks fire! The shredded silver and the shrunken gold, Caught by this dark divinity of clay, Shall laugh and blossom brighter than the unmarred Roses of heaven rooted in sapphire hush. Sri Aurobindo's Comment "Not overhead except in substance, but very fine poetry. The 'leprosy of light' is a rather violent expression perhaps, but s

THIS ERRANT LIFE This errant life is dear although it dies; And human lips are sweet though they but sing Of stars estranged from us; and youth's emprise Is wondrous yet, although an unsure thing. Sky-lucent Bliss untouched by earthiness! I fear to soar lest tender bonds decrease. If Thou desirest my weak self to outgrow Its mortal longings, lean down from above, Temper the unborn light no thought can trace, Suffuse my mood with a familiar glow. For 'tis with mouth of clay I supplicate: Speak to me heart to heart words intimate, And all Thy formless glory turn to love And mould Thy love into a huma

DESCENT A secret of far sky burns suddenly close, A deep blue wakes to glory from pale blue: Then large and calm and effortless wings of light Swoop crimson through the paradisal air! Talons of eyrie truth—a clutch of gold— Numb every thought to a shining vacancy Merged in the immortal spaciousness around This haloed hawk that preys on time-desire... My body, wrapt in the vast apocalypse, Grows king of Nature with the mystic bird A flaming crown of godhead over life! Sri Aurobindo's Comment "It is certainly very original and expresses with great force the spiritual experience. A very fine poem—most of it being in

IN TERRAM Why this indignity that from the brave Height of soul-lustre into a broken grave Man's yearning flesh should drop and all his drouth Of planet-passion kiss the worm's cold mouth? What treasure yet unknown draws down his mood, Whose heart is fashioned for infinitude? Surely some God-abyss calls out to him! ... We die and all our winged senses dim Because we have not dreamed the goal of birth, The arcane eternity coring dull earth. O omnipresent Light, break from below As in the constellate seasons of our mind: Rise up and flower in these cells of woe, Flush the wan nerves, breathe your immense g