Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

CWSA 27

Fragment ID: 7334

Sri Aurobindo’s Critical Comments on Poetry Written in the Ashram [2]

I see no earthly use in producing something that is just “all right” when I am obsessed with an intuition of some hitherto unrevealed miraculous poetic creation existing on a plane I absolutely despair of reaching.... I beg to be excused, again, for this much ado about nothing but I am awfully disgusted with myself.

You should get rid of the disgust. The sonnet in its amended form is fine enough – if I do not shoot up into enthusiasm about it, it is for two reasons – 1st because I am becoming cautious about the use of superlatives nowadays, not for poetical or critical but for other reasons and secondly because I expect you to do much better than your present best and if I use high expressions, what the devil shall I do when you rise to yet unexpected summits. So you need not be damped by my “all rights” etc. – on the contrary you should give full value to both the all and the right.

1 May 1934