Nirodbaran

Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo

Second Series

2. Art and Literature

Modes and Varieties of Poetic Creation

How do you find the poem I am sending you? Does it deserve incarceration?

Well, as poetry it is good – but I can't say it is distinguished or beautiful like the poems you have written since. You needn't incarcerate, but bury it in a drawer somewhere for the moment. Read it again after ten years. (Horace's advice.)

What about the refrain?

Refrain? man alive, if all were like the refrain, I should say “bury, bury, burn, burn.”

23.08.1936