Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

CWSA 27

Fragment ID: 7320

Lyric, Narrative, Epic [4]

As narrative poetry and epic are not the same, why should the former give me a training in the latter?

It is necessary to be able to work out a subject at length in a clear well-built way – epic is usually of a narrative build – so narrative poetry is the best training for that. The narrative writers you speak of did not aspire to be epic poets.

6 June 1937