Her spirit refused struck from the starry listSri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Fragment ID: 20316
Her spirit refused struck from the starry list
To quench in dull despair the God-given light.
I omitted any punctuation1 because it is a compressed construction meant to signify refused to be struck from the starry list and quenched in dull despair etc,– the quenching being the act of consent that would make effective the sentence of being struck from the starry list.
1936
1 A question was put to Sri Aurobindo: “Any punctuation missing? Perhaps a dash after ‘refused’ as well as after ‘list’?” In the final version, (p.19) these lines have been expanded to:
Her spirit refused to hug the common soil,
Or, finding all life’s golden meanings robbed,
Compound with earth, struck from the starry list,
Or quench with black despair the God-given light.