YOUR FACE Your face unveils the cry, Divinely deep, Heard from the inscrutable core Of mystic sleep— A lure of rapturous tune Where vision fails, Like a nest of heaven-hearted Nightingales. No hush of love could catch That soul of swoon: Dawn's body ever crossed My dream too soon. But now with a face of dawn Night yearns to me, Kindling the distances Of lost divinity. Sri Aurobindo's Comment "I don't find it brainy in any unpoetic sense—the turn in the last stanza might have been thought ingenious if it had not been given so fine a poetic form. A very fine little lyric with that i

-002_Editor^s Introduction.htm EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION Here some poems are collected of a particular kind written by a disciple of Sri Aurobindo's, along with detailed appraisals of them by Sri Aurobindo himself. Following the appraisals are relevant excerpts from literary correspondence already published for the most part. This correspondence—barring a few instances—was with the same disciple and the excerpts have been either dovetailed to amplify the points of the immediate judgments or appended to present additional issues. They include, towards the end, a few remarks by Sri Aurobindo on some lines of his own. An epilogue consisting of a pertinently enlightening passage from Sri Aurobindo's epic

SILVER GRACE A love has sealed us one with paradise— A kiss of crescent moon upon earth's soul By virgin raptures dreaming in the blue That even the pit of hell is a buried sky. No warrior gold can pierce the veil of time; For God's own glory here has sunk asleep, And how shall that abyss of majesty Brook from its summit-self a lash of light? Therefore this love's seducing glimmer came, This haloed serpent of the Infinite, A white bliss curving through our blinded deeps To give the darkness' mouth a shadowless smile. Sri Aurobindo's Comment "A very fine poem throughout. The 2nd and 3rd lines are

ASCENT A nectar-dew falls glimmering from the Unknown To wake the shadowless seed of mystic love Lost in the blind abysses of the brain. A memory stirs the locked immensity— An occult creative Eye now yearns afar. Dreams upward through a gilded sky of mind, The hard deceiving dome of a false heaven, To an infinite ether of apocalypt blue. Then slowly breaks on hyalines of hush A white rumour of flames and fragrances, A vast virginity kindles above time. The lotus of the soul has lifted high A million rapturous petal-arms to clasp The secret of a sempiternal sun. Sri Aurobindo's Comment "Al

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