Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

CWSA 27

Fragment ID: 7219

The Necessity and Nature of Inspiration [8]

After reading Jyoti’s whole poem, I realised it would have been impossible to write it simply from facility. It is an inspiration-poem.

Of course it is impossible. There must be inspiration. The value of the poem does not rise from the labour or difficulty felt in writing it. Shakespeare, it is said, wrote at full speed and never erased a line.

29 July 1936