Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Poetry and Art

SABCL - Volume 27

Part 1. Poetry and its Creation
Section 1. The Sources of Poetry
Examples of Overhead Poetry

Evaluations of 1934 – 1937 [4]

What I should have said is: “Does that line of Wordsworth’s have those special qualities which mark out the substance, language and rhythm of a line from the mental Overmind — the same qualities which are to be found in the three lines of my poem, which you consider to have an Overmind touch?” I am no competent judge, but I think that it contains all those qualities in a more intense and undiluted form: is that true?

Probably you are right.

Of my three lines, only

From star-birds winging through the vacancy

seems to be somewhere near it in pure inspiration from the mental Overmind.

I am not sure about the pure inspiration — I said a touch from the mental overmind. But perhaps I am overcautious in these matters.