Sri Aurobindo

Collected Poems

SABCL - Volume 5

II. Sonnets
1930–1950

The Miracle of Birth

I saw my soul a traveller through Time;

From life to life the cosmic ways it trod,

Obscure in the depths and on the heights sublime,

Evolving from the worm into the god.

A spark of the eternal Fire, it came

To build a house in Matter for the Unborn.

The inconscient sunless Night received the flame,

In the brute seed of things dumb and forlorn

Life stirred and Thought outlined a gleaming shape

Till on the stark inanimate earth could move,

Born to somnambulist Nature in her sleep

A thinking creature who can hope and love.

Still by slow steps the miracle goes on,

The Immortal’s gradual birth mid mire and stone.

Later edition of this work: The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo.- Set in 37 volumes.- Volume 2.- Collected Poems.- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2009.- 751 p.