Nirodbaran

Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo

Second Series

2. Art and Literature

Mystic Poetry

II. Imagination and Experience in Poetry

J. wrote in a poem

¹

X says: “How can stars be bent?” So he changed it to ², whereas J. declared that she wrote it because she experienced one night as if the stars were bending down.

is no doubt good poetry and very good poetry but it is a purely external image and gives no subjective vibration, while J's line does. The objection that stars do not get ³ stands only if the poem describes objective phenomena or aims at using purely objective images. But if the vision behind the poem is subjective, the objection holds no longer. The mystic subjective vision admits a consciousness in physical things and gives them a subtle physical life which  is not that of the material existence. If a consciousness is felt in the stars and if that consciousness expresses itself in subtle physical images to the vision of the poet, there can be no improbability of a star being – such expressions attribute a mystical life to the stars and can appropriately express this in mystic images. I agree with you about the fineness of the line.

X says: “This may not be an experience at all, and who knows if it is not an imagination, and how are we to know which is which?”

But is it necessary to say which is which? It is not possible to deny that it was an experience, even if one cannot affirm it – not being in the consciousness of the writer. But even if it is an imagination, it is a powerful poetic imagination which expresses what would be the exact feeling in the real experience. It seems to me that that is quite enough. There are so many things in Wordsworth and Shelley which people say were only mental feelings and imaginations and yet they express the deeper seeings or feelings of the seer. For poetry it seems to me the point is irrelevant.

27.05.1936

¹ Millions of stars are swaying in rhythm

And, sparkling, pour their diamonds:

They are bent downward in self-oblivious ecstasy.

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² In a steadfast stream of illumination

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³ bent

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