Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
SABCL 26
Fragment ID: 7916
Q: I hear that James Cousins said about your poem “The Rishi” that it was only spiritual philosophy, not poetry.
A: I never heard that. If I had I would have noted that Cousins had no capacity for appreciating intellectual poetry. But that I knew already, just as he had no liking for epic poetry either, only for poetic “jewellery”. His criticism was of In the Moonlight which he condemned as brain-stuff only except the early stanzas for which he had high praise. That criticism was of great use to me, though I did not agree with it. But the positive part of it helped me to develop towards a supra-intellectual style. As Love and Death was poetry of the vital, so Ahana1 is mostly work of the poetic intelligence. Cousins’ criticism helped me to go a stage farther.
11-11-1936
1 The reference is to the early version, not the one revised and considerably re-written later.