Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Poetry and Art

SABCL - Volume 27

Part 2. On His Own and Others’ Poetry
Section 3. Practical Guidance for Aspiring Writers
Guidance in Writing Poetry

Lyric, Narrative, Epic [10]

One day after reading something you wrote about epics and epic poetry, a flaming aspiration entered my heart that one day I must write an epic. [Details of the proposed epic given.] Please tell me what an epic should consist of.

There must be a great subject — the one you propose is obviously a very big one; there must be what is called an architecture of the poem, each part of it clearly planned and in its right place so as to create a perfect harmony, like the noble or magnificent mass and detail of a great building; there must be a perfect working out of the subject.

Will the study of the structure and characteristics of the great epics help me to learn about the building and technique?

It is not necessary to read all the epics — two or three if properly appreciated, i.e. if you see and feel the right things in it to learn from would be sufficient.

I shall wait till I hear from you whether you approve of the aspiration at all.

The idea you have given is a very vast one, but if the epic faculty develops in you there is no reason why you should not carry it out. Only there must be no impatience. Milton waited twenty years before he started the epic he had dreamt of. Also from the point of view and kind of style in which you want to write it, you will have not only to get the access to the inspiration of the overhead poetry but to be quite open to the flow of that consciousness — otherwise you would only do small poems in it like Amal’s, such a vast work would be impossible. At present go on with your development — you have the epic flow but not as yet the epic building, that must come in small things before you can do it in large ones. It will come in time, but time is necessary.

21 May 1937