Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Poetry and Art

SABCL - Volume 27

Part 2. On His Own and Others’ Poetry
Section 2. On Poets and Poetry
Comments on the Work of Poets of the Ashram

Arjava (J. A. Chadwick) [10]

Totalitarian

Night was closing on the traveller

When he came

To the empty eerie courtyard

With no name.

Loud he called; no echo answered;

Nothing stirred:

But a crescent moon swung wanly,

White as curd.

When he flashed his single sword-blade

Through the gloom,

None resisted — till he frantic,

Filled with doom,

Hurled his weapon through the gloaming.

Took no aim;

Saw his likenesses around him

Do the same:

Viewed a thousand swordless figures

Like his own —

Then first knew in that cold starlight

Hell, alone.

Exceedingly original and vivid — the description with its economy and felicity of phrase is very telling.

11 October 1936