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 Savitri

Comments on Specific Lines and Passages of the Poem [55]

Your line,

In a stillness of the voices of the world, [cf. p. 294]

is separated by twenty lines from

In the formless force and the still fixity. [p. 294]

So there is no fault here in “stillness”, but an added poetic quality might come if “stillness” were avoided and some such word as “lulling” used, especially as the line before runs:

And cradles of heavenly rapture and repose.

“Lulling” will never do. It is too ornamental and romantic and tender. I have put “slumber” in its place.