Letters on Poetry and Art

 

 

CONTENTS

 

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PART ONE
POETRY AND ITS CREATION

     
 

Section One. The Sources of Poetry

   

Poetic Creation

   

Sources of Inspiration

   

Overhead Poetry

   

Examples of Overhead Poetry

     
 

Section Two. The Poetry of the Spirit

   

Psychic, Mystic and Spiritual Poetry

   

Poet, Yogi, Rishi, Prophet, Genius

   

The Poet and the Poem

     
 

Section Three. Poetic Technique

   

Technique, Inspiration, Artistry

   

Rhythm

   

English Metres

   

Greek and Latin Classical Metres

   

Quantitative Metre in English and Bengali

   

Metrical Experiments in Bengali

   

Rhyme

   

English Poetic Forms

   

Substance, Style, Diction

   

Grades of Perfection in Poetic Style

   

Examples of Grades of Perfection in Poetic Style

     
 

Section Four. Translation

   

Translation: Theory

   

Translation: Practice

     
 

PART TWO
ON HIS OWN AND OTHERS’ POETRY

     
 

Section One. On His Poetry and Poetic Method

   

Inspiration, Effort, Development

   

Early Poetic Influences

   

On Early Translations and Poems

   

On Poems Published in Ahana and Other Poems

   

Metrical Experiments

   

On Some Poems Written during the 1930s

   

On Savitri

   

Comments on Some Remarks by a Critic

   

On the Publication of His Poetry

     
 

Section Two. On Poets and Poetry

   

Great Poets of the World

   

Remarks on Individual Poets

   

Comments on Some Examples of Western Poetry (up to 1900)

   

Twentieth-Century Poetry

   

Comments on Examples of Twentieth-Century Poetry

   

Indian Poetry in English

   

Poets of the Ashram

   

Comments on the Work of Poets of the Ashram

   

Philosophers, Intellectuals, Novelists and Musicians

   

Comments on Some Passages of Prose

     
 

Section Three. Practical Guidance for Aspiring Writers

   

Guidance in Writing Poetry

   

Guidance in Writing Prose

   

Remarks on English Pronunciation

   

Remarks on English Usage

   

Remarks on Bengali Usage

     
 

PART THREE
LITERATURE, ART, BEAUTY AND YOGA

     
 

Section One.  Appreciation of Poetry and the Arts

   

Appreciation of Poetry

   

Appreciation of the Arts in General

   

Comparison of the Arts

   

Appreciation of Music

     
 

Section Two. On the Visual Arts

   

General Remarks on the Visual Arts

   

Problems of the Painter

   

Painting in the Ashram

     
 

Section Three. Beauty and Its Appreciation

   

General Remarks on Beauty

   

Appreciation of Beauty

     
 

Section Four. Literature, Art, Music and the Practice of Yoga

   

Literature and Yoga

   

Painting, Music, Dance and Yoga

     
 

APPENDIXES

   

Appendix I. The Problem of the Hexameter

   

Appendix II. An Answer to a Criticism

   

Appendix III. Remarks on a Review

     
 

NOTE ON THE TEXTS

On Poems Published in

Ahana and Other Poems

 

On Two Translations of Revelation

 

The rendering of Revelation is even better than the two others, well inspired from beginning to end; the colouring is not quite the same as in my poem, but that is hardly avoidable in a poetic version in another language. To alter it, as you propose, would be to spoil it. There is no point in rendering literally "wind-blown locks", and it would be a pity to throw out , for it is just the touch needed to avoid the suggestion of a merely human figure. It is needed ―for readers are often dense. An Indian critic (very competent, if a little academic) disregarding all the mystic suggestions and even the plain statement of the closing couplet, actually described the poem as the poet's memory of a girl running past him on the seashore!!

25 January 1931

 

*

 

The translation is very good poetry. It is perhaps not quite the original, for what you describe is an obviously superhuman figure while the details in the poem might be those of a human figure and it is something subtle and not expressed but only hinted which gives the impression expressed only at the end that it is someone of the heavenly rout. That however does not matter; your version can be taken as an adaptation of the idea in the poem and not a strict translation of it.

 

On Two Translations of The Vedantin's Prayer

 

You have made a very fine and true rendering of the Vedantin's Prayer. Perhaps so hard and rocky a person as the Vedantin, who is very much of a converted Titan, would not have thought of such a sweet and luxurious word as কুসুিম  in the midst of his  

 

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ascent and struggle, but these few alterations do not make any real difference to the spirit. There is a quite sufficient nobility and power in your translation. With that, it seems to me as literal as it can be.

6 May 1932

 

*

 

Kshitish Sen's translation of the opening lines of the Vedantin's Prayer are magnificently done. He has quite caught the tone of the original, its austerity and elevation of thought and feeling and severe restraint of expression with yet a certain massiveness of power in it, ―these at least were what tried to come out when I wrote it, and they are all unmistakably and nobly there in his rendering. If he can complete it without falling from the high force of this opening, it will be a chef-d'oeuvre. I notice he has got the exactly corresponding verse movement also.

24 June 1932

 

On a Translation of God

 

It is not a very satisfactory translation, but your changes improve it as far as it can be improved.

Why তবু in the fourth line? The idea is that work and knowledge and power can only obey the Divine and give him service; Love alone can compel him ―because, of course, Love is self-giving and the Divine gives himself in return.

As for the second verse it does not give the idea at all. To have no contempt for the clod or the worm does not indicate that the non-despiser is the Divine, ―such an idea would be absolutely meaningless and in the last degree feeble. Any Yogi could have that equality, or somebody much less than a Yogi. The idea is that, being omnipotent, omniscient, infinite, Supreme, the Divine does not scorn to descend even into the lowest forms, the obscurest figures of Nature and animate them with the divine Presence, ―that shows his Divinity. The whole sense has fizzled out in the translation.

You need not say all that to the poetess, but perhaps you might very delicately hint to her that if she could bring in this

 

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point, it would be better. Then perhaps she would herself change the verse.

25 December 1930

 

On a Word in In the Moonlight

 

What is the meaning of the word "ground" in these two lines from your poem In the Moonlight? ―

 

. . . Are Nature's bye-laws merely, meant to ground

A grandiose freedom building peace by strife.

 

Does "ground" mean "crush"?

 

"Ground" means here not to crush, but to make a ground or foundation for the freedom. What Science calls laws of Nature are not the absolute or principal laws of existence, but only minor rules meant to build up a material basis for the life of the Spirit in the body. On that has to be erected in the end, not a rule of material Law, but an immortal Liberty ―not law of Nature, but freedom of the Spirit. The strife of forces which is regulated by these minor laws of Nature is only the battle through which man has to win the peace of Spirit. This is the sense.

February 1929

 

James Cousins on In the Moonlight and The Rishi

 

I hear that James Cousins said about your poem The Rishi that it was only spiritual philosophy, not poetry.

 

I never heard that. If I had I would have noted that Cousins had no capacity for appreciating intellectual poetry. But that I knew already ―just as he had no liking for epic poetry either, only for poetic "jewellery". His criticism was of In the Moonlight which he condemned as brain-stuff only except the early stanzas for which he had high praise. That criticism was of great use to me ―though I did not agree with it. But the positive part of it helped me to develop towards a supra-intellectual style. As Love and Death was poetry of the vital, so Ahana [Ahana and other Poems] is mostly work of the poetic intelligence. Cousins'  

 

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criticism helped me to go a stage farther.

11 November 1936

Amal says Cousins ignored The Rishi while speaking of the others. Isn't that far worse?

 

Neither worse nor better. What does Cousins' bad opinion about The Rishi matter to me? I know the limitations of my poetry and also its qualities. I know also the qualities of Cousins as a critic and also his limitations. If Milton had written during the life of Cousins instead of having an established reputation for centuries, Cousins would have said of Paradise Lost and still more of Paradise Regained "This is not poetry, this is theology." Note that I don't mean to say that The Rishi is anywhere near Paradise Lost, but it is poetry as well as spiritual philosophy.

13 November 1936  

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