Sri Aurobindo
The Future Poetry
CWSA.- Volume 26
Publisher’s Note
The Future Poetry was first published in the monthly review Arya in thirty-two instalments between December 1917 and July 1920. These instalments were written immediately before their publication.
Sri Aurobindo twice undertook to revise The Future Poetry. During the late 1920s or early 1930s he revised seventeen chapters; in 1950 he dictated changes and additions to twenty chapters, thirteen of which had been revised earlier. The work of revision was never completed and The Future Poetry was not published in the form of a book during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime.
In 1953 the Arya text of The Future Poetry was brought out as a book, with only two passages of the later revision added. In 1985 an edition incorporating all available revision was published.
On Quantitative Metre was published in 1942 as an appendix to Collected Poems and Plays and as a separate book. It was written shortly before its publication.
This edition of The Future Poetry with On Quantitative Metre has been checked against the author’s manuscripts and the original printed texts.
CONTENTS
The Future Poetry. Part One
Chapter I
The Mantra 3
Chapter II
The Essence of Poetry 11
Chapter III
Rhythm and Movement 19
Chapter IV
Style and Substance 25
Chapter V
Poetic Vision and the Mantra 31
Chapter VI
The National Evolution of Poetry 41
Chapter VII
The Character of English Poetry – 1 48
Chapter VIII
The Character of English Poetry – 2 53
Chapter IX
The Course of English Poetry – 1
Chaucer and the Poetry of External Life 63
Chapter X
The Course of English Poetry – 1
Elizabethan Drama
Shakespeare and the Poetry of the Life-Spirit 72
Chapter XI
The Course of English Poetry – 3 83
Chapter XII
The Course of English Poetry – 4 90
Chapter XIII
The Course of English Poetry – 5 100
Chapter XIV
The Movement of Modern Literature – 1 107
Chapter XV
The Movement of Modern Literature – 2 116
Chapter XVI
The Poets of the Dawn– 1 124
Chapter XVII
The Poets of the Dawn– 2
Byron and Wordsworth 128
Chapter XVIII
The Poets of the Dawn– 3 138
Chapter XIX
The Victorian Poets 148
Chapter XX
Recent English Poetry – 1 160
Chapter XXI
Recent English Poetry – 2 172
Chapter XXII
Recent English Poetry – 3 183
Chapter XXIII
Recent English Poetry – 4 192
Chapter XXIV
New Birth or Decadence? 205
The Future Poetry. Part Two
Chapter I
The Ideal Spirit of Poetry 217
Chapter II
The Sun of Poetic Truth 227
Chapter III
The Breath of Greater Life 241
Chapter IV
The Soul of Poetic Delight and Beauty 254
Chapter V
The Power of the Spirit 268
Chapter VI
The Form and the Spirit 276
Chapter VII
The Word and the Spirit 287
Chapter VIII
Conclusion 302
Appendixes to The Future Poetry 311
On Quantitative Metre
On Quantitative Metre 317
Poems in Quantitative Metres 367