Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Third Series

Fragment ID: 21064

I Do not know what to say on the subject you propose to me – the superiority of music to poetry – for my appreciation of music is bodiless and inexpressible, while about poetry I can write at ease with an expert knowledge. But is it necessary to fix a scale of greatness between two fine arts when each has its own greatness and can touch in its own way the extremes aesthetic Ananda? Music, no doubt, goes nearest the infinite and to the essence of things because it relies wholly on the ethereal vehicle, Shabda, (architecture by the by can do something of the same kind the other extreme even in its imprisonment in mass); but painting and sculpture have their revenge by liberating visible form into ecstasy, while poetry though it cannot do with sound what music does, yet can make a many-stringed harmony, a sound revelation winging the creation by the word and setting afloat vivid suggestions of form and colour,– that gives it in a very subtle kind the power all the arts. Who shall decide between such claims or be a judge between these godheads?