Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Poetry and Art

SABCL - Volume 27

Part 2. On His Own and Others’ Poetry
Section 1. On His Poetry and Poetic Method
On Some Poems Written during the 1930s

Tagore and The Life Heavens [2]

In regard to Tagore, I understand from Prithwi Singh that his objections to The Life Heavens were personal rather than in principle — that is, he himself had no such experience and could not take them as true (for himself), so they aroused in him no emotion, while Shiva was just the contrary. I can’t say anything to that, as I could not say anything if somebody condemned a poem of mine root and branch because he did not like it or on good grounds — such as Cousins’ objection to the inferiority of the greater part of In the Moonlight to the opening stanzas. I learned a great deal from that objection; it pointed me the way I had to go towards the Future Poetry. Not that I did not know before, but it gave precision and point to my previous perception. But still I don’t quite understand Tagore’s objection. I myself do not take many things as true in poetry — e.g. Dante’s Hell etc. — of which I yet feel the emotion. It is surely part of the power of poetry to open new worlds to us as well as to give a supreme voice to our own ideas, experiences and feelings. The Life Heavens may not do that for its readers, but, if so, it is a fault of execution, not of principle.

4 October 1934