Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

SABCL 26

Fragment ID: 7946

Q: Some more lines to classify, the close of a sonnet by me – the sestet following the last four words of the octave:

For I have viewed,

Astir within my clay’s engulfing sleep,

An ‘alien astonishment of light!

Let me be merged with its unsoundable deep

And mirror in futile farness the full height

Of a heaven barred for ever to my distress,

Rather than hoard life’s happy littleness!

A: This is indeed an example of the effective style at its best, that is to say rising to something of illumination, especially in the second, fourth and sixth lines.

16-9-1934