Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

CWSA 27

Fragment ID: 7308

The Right Words in the Right Places [4]

In the poem I’ve sent you today, the first line of the third stanza should run:

With tones of fathomless joy we instil

instead of

Our tones of fathomless joy instil.

If you alter in that way, the whole beauty is gone. When a perfect inspiration comes, to alter it is a crime and usually carries its own punishment. The alteration you propose makes a deep and solemn psychic truth turn at once into an intellectual statement.