O take those lips away”3 (the whole lyric) is all overtones.Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume 2. 1937
Letter ID: 1936
Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar
May 11, 1937
I am sending you today’s poem so that you may show me the un-English overtones and undertones and other defects.
What the deuce! Overtones and undertones are not English or unEnglish; but I have pointed out the unEnglish ambiguities. Perhaps you will say that it is a surrealistic poem? But it has too much an air of logical building for that.
If you have time, I would like to know what exactly are these overtones and undertones [8.5.37].
I was speaking of rhythmical overtones and undertones. That is to say, there is a metrical rhythm which belongs to the skilful use of metre – any good poet can manage that; but besides that there is a music which rises up out of this rhythm or a music that underlies it, carries it as it were as the movement of the water carries the movement of a boat. They can both exist together in the same line, but it is more a matter of the inner than the outer ear and I am afraid I can’t define farther. To go into the subject would mean a long essay. But to give examples –
Journeys end in lovers meeting,
Every wise man’s son doth know1,
is excellent metrical rhythm, but there are no overtones and undertones. In
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust2
there is a beginning of undertone, but no overtone, while the “Take, O take those lips away”3 (the whole lyric) is all overtones.
Again
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him4
has admirable rhythm, but there are no overtones or undertones. But
In maiden meditation, fancy-free5
has beautiful running undertones, while
In the dark backward and abysm of Time6
is all overtones, and
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain7,
is all overtones and undertones together. I don’t suppose this will make you much wiser, but it is all I can do for you at present.
“Break that chain, find in the soul’s lonely sign
A fountain of volcanic deluge-fire,
The rock-embedded source of spirit-mine
The immortal wine of sovereign Desire.”
Sir, this is a surrealistic tangle. You find a fountain of volcanic fire in a sign and that fountain is the source of a mine (rather difficult for the miners to get at through the volcanic fire) and also in that source is a wine-cellar,– perhaps in the rocks which embed the source, but all the same a strange place to choose. Perhaps for the miners to drink.
Nothing in A’s stools [8.5.37]. Some Vichy water may do him good.
Vichy water has to be taken fresh – stale from France in bottles it is not safe.
May I take a “sea bath” twice a week? It will help in fil- 
ling up my clavicular depressions and developing my pectoral and intercostal muscles, perhaps. If Mother doesn’t want, I won’t.
Mother is not encouraging the practice but neither is she forbidding it,– except for some. She is neutral. She leaves you free to choose.
[The following questions were put by J:] Is there a difference between blank verse and poetry which is quite epic and blank verse and poetry which is written only in the epic style, model or manner?
I don’t quite understand the point of the question. Poetry is epic or it is not. There may be differences of elevation in the epic style, but this seems to be distinction without a difference.
Surely there must be some difference between an epic, true and genuine throughout, and a poem which is only in the epic style or has the epic tone?
An epic is a long poem usually narrative on a great subject written in a style and rhythm that is of a high nobility or sublime. But short poems, a sonnet for instance can be in the epic style or tone, e.g. some of Milton’s or Meredith’s sonnet on Lucifer or, as far as I can remember it, Shelley’s on Ozymandias.
What are the qualities or characteristics that tell one – “This is an epic”?
I think the formula I have given is the only possible definition. Apart from that each epic poet has his own qualities and characteristics that differ widely from the others. For the rest one can feel what is the epic nobility or sublimity, one can’t very well analyse it.
In Sanskrit epics, e.g. Kumarsambhav, what has made up the rhythm? And how does it sound so grave, lofty, wide and deep?
It is a characteristic that comes natural to Sanskrit written in the classical style.
How can one have all these qualities together?
Why not? they are not incompatible qualities.
English seems to have the necessary tone more easily, but is it possible in Bengali?
I don’t know why it shouldn’t be. Madhu Sudan’s style is a lofty epical style; it is not really grave and deep because his mind was not grave or deep – but that was the defect of the poet, not necessarily an incapacity of the language.
Kumarsambhav was my textbook in I.A., but I have not read all of it. May I ask Kapali Shastri to help me read it?
I don’t know if it is necessary for a poetic, not scholarly reading of the poem.
It is only the 1st seven cantos that need to be read.
1 Twelfth-Night, II. ni. 46-7.
2 Cymbeline, IV. ii. 262-3.
3 Measure for Measure, IV. i. 1.
4 Julius Caesar. III. ii. 79-80.
5 A Midsummer-Night’s Dream, II.i. 164.
6 The Tempest, I. ii. 49.
7 Hamlet, V.ii. 361-2.