The Poetry of Sri Aurobindo Ghose–Chief Features

The Poetry of Sri Aurobindo Ghose–Chief Features

The Poetry of Sri Aurobindo Ghose– Chief Features

Sri Aurobindo Ghose (1872- 1950) was a versatile personality of India. He was a scholar, a sage, a revolutionary, a religious teacher, a philosopher and above all a great writer. As a writer, he was a playwright and a prolific poet. As a poet, he was from head to foot a mystic. The mystic theme is the only main theme of his poetry. Like a true mystic, he believed in the existence of only one supreme Divine Soul that expresses Himself through Nature. More like a true mystic, he believed that human soul can communicate with the Divine Soul through Nature. But as a mystic, his thoughts and philosophy are indebted to the Hindu scriptures, especially to the Upanishads. In his poetry, mystic note is so immense that the world of his poetry is an exception from the world of other Indo- Anglian poets. He inundates his world of poetry with the mystic light of the Upanishads. 

The poet is not guided by man-made rules and creeds but by the rules of Nature. In other words, to say, he is governed not by his flesh but by his soul. And it means that he has transcended worldly matters and becomes a total devotee to God. In the poem entitled ‘Transformation’ he admits:

”I am no more a vassal of the flesh

A slave to nature and her laden rule

I am caught no more in the senses, narrow mesh,

My soul unhorizoned widens to measureless sight

My soul is God’s happy living tool, 

My spirit a vast sum of deathless light.”

The Poetry of Sri Aurobindo Ghose– Chief Features

In the poem ‘Revelation’ the poet experiences a mystic vision in the rock. In it, he says that he suddenly sees someone leaping from the rocks. It was a glimpse of light. He says:

”And a hurried glance behind

And then nothing- as a thought

Escapes the mind ere it is caught

Someone of the heavenly rout

From the veil ran out.”

The Poetry of Sri Aurobindo Ghose– Chief Features

‘Thought the Paraclete’ is another mystic poem. In this poem, he says that the Divine Soul sometimes appears on the earth like a vision of light and this vision is seen by them only who are meditative, spiritually uplifted and temperate in worldly affairs. He says:

”Drew its vague heart-yearning with voices sweet.

Hungering large-souled to surprise the unconned

………………………………………………….

Disappeared slow-singing, a flame-word rune

Self was left, love, limitless, rude, immune.”

The Poetry of Sri Aurobindo Ghose– Chief Features

In the poem entitled ‘A Dream of Surreal Science,’ he says echoing the same strain, as-

”A thyroid meditating almost nude

Under the Bo-tree, saw the eternal Light

And rising from its mighty solitude,

Spoke of the wheel and eightfold path all right.”

The Poetry of Sri Aurobindo Ghose– Chief Features

The above analyses of his poems show that he is a true mystic poet like his contemporary poet Nizamat Jung. But as a mystic poet, Sri Aurobindo is different from the English mystic poets. His mystic idea is totally Upanishadian. He believes in the mystic union of human soul with the Divine Soul through Nature-soul which is possible for him only who is temperate to worldly affairs and meditative to God and here he as a mystic poet differs from the English and American mystic poets, especially from William Blake and Walt Whitman. They believed that the mystic union of the human soul and the Divine soul is possible even without being temperate and without discarding worldly affairs. On the other hand, Sri Aurobindo believes that a mystic poet must be a sage with a pious heart. 

Besides being a mystic poet, Sri Aurobindo was a great epic poet also. He was the first Indian English poet to write a successful epic in English. The name of his epic is ‘Savitri’. It is based on an Indian mythological story. Aurobindo in writing the epic derived the inspiration from Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’. It is Miltonic in respect of blank verse, similes and seriousness. His blank verse used in the epic is grand like that of Milton. In this epic, he makes blend of his mystic vision with philosophical creeds. It is his monumental work completed in fifty years written in twelve books containing 49 cantons. He uses a variety of styles in it as dramatic, romantic, and narrative when occasion needs.

In thought and philosophy, Sri Aurobindo was a true Indian; but he used both Indian and Western themes and references successfully. His poem ‘The Trojan War’ is written on a western theme. In this poem, he refers to Greek mythological gods and goddesses as- Zeus, Titan, Aegean, etc. with equal skill as he uses Indian gods and goddesses.

His imageries are usually long and grand that fascinates our heart with throbbing delight. For example, we can quote the following lines from ‘The Vision and the Boon’-

”Beauty shall walk celestial on the earth,

Delight shall sleep in the cloud net of her hair

And in her body as on his homing tree

Immortal Love shall beat his glorious wings.

A music of griefless things shall weave her charm;

The harps of the perfect shall attune her voice,

The stream of Heaven shall murmur in her laugh,

Her lips shall be the honeycombs of God,

Her limbs his golden jars of ecstasy

Her beasts the rapture-flower of paradise.”

The Poetry of Sri Aurobindo Ghose– Chief Features

His language is poetic both in matter and style. In some of his poems, the influence of Walt Whitman is seen in forming words and phrases. Like that of Whitman, some of his sentences are full of internal cadence that runs swiftly from one to another, as-

”Brilliant, crouching, slouching, what crept

Through the green heart of the forest

Gleaming eyes and mighty chest and soft

Soundless paws of grandeur and murder?”

Sri Aurobindo as an Indo-Anglian poet is great and as a great poet, his place in the lineage of Indian English poets should always be with Michael Dutt and a few others. 0 0 0

The Poetry of Sri Aurobindo Ghose– Chief Features