C _ E ! i P T E E - L

T G ! ! S E E S T H E S E L R I T U A Z -

TO'dARDS THE SPIRITUAL -- A spiritual evolution, an evolution of consciousness in Natter in a constant developing self formation till the form can reveal the indwelling Spirit, is then the keynote, the central significant motive of the terres- trial existence. This significance is concealed at the outset by the involution of the Spirit, the Divine Reality, in a dense material Inconscience, a veil of insensibility of Matter hides the universal C O ~ S C ~ O U S - ness-Force which works within it, so that the energy, which is the first form the Force of creation assumes in the physical universe, appears to be itself incon- sclent and yet does the works of a vast occult Intelligence.1

Concept g Evolution

Man has been on a very long journey, which has taken him

from a primary identification with his body, through an identifl-

cation with his emotions on to an identification with his mind.

But, the general movement of human consciousness, obeying its

innate tendency to transcendence will lead man to an identifica-

tion with that which is beyond the mind, namely the Supermind. In

other words, we see that man is continually growing in conscious

ness and therefore will one day reach the complete and perfect

consciousness.

According to Sri Aurobindo, "the growth of consciousness is

the supreme secret of llfe,the master key to earthly evolution."2

The baeis of Sri Aurobindo's thought arises from the teaching

of tha ancient sages of India who experienced a Reality, e con

-sciournees, a Self of all things, one and eternal behind the

appearances of the universe. It is a seperativity of con-

sciousness that crzates a division of ell beings from being

united in that One Self and Reality. Man is ignorant of his true

Self in the mind, life and body. But .it is possible by a

certain psychological discipline,to remove this veil of

seperative consclcusness and become aware of the true Self,the

Divinity within us and a11".3

Evolution is the process by which, this One Being and

Consciousness which is lnvolved here in Master, liberates or

unfolds itself. Evolution then, is the reverse of the movement

towards lnvolutlon or creation. It is because the highest

consclousness of the Spirit has descended into mind, life and

matter that it follows the ascending movement towards the higher

regions of the Spirit. Originally the Spirit or Consciousness was

engulfed/within what appears as inconscient Matter. But once

liberating Itself. is impelled to transcendence and develop

towards a higher, a larger and greater perfection. Life evolved

out of Matter, first in the form of plants, then as animals with

the first stirrings of consclousness. Then in Man, consciousness

appeared in the form of the Mind.

If the movement has been from Matter to Life to Mind, then

a release into something beyond the mind is awaited, namely a

consciousness of the spirit or spiritual consciousness. So long

evolution was a spontaneous process or a process thrrlugh igno-

rance, but now when evolution/consciousness moves beyond the

mind it becomes a process through knowledge, because "in man,

Ratura becomes able to evolve by a conscious will in the

instrument.4" However, this process of growth beyond the mind

caaaot be wholly done by the mental will alone, for the nature

of the mind is to move in a circle after having reached a point.

*A conversion has to be made, a turning 2f the consciousness by

which mind has to change into the higher principle,"5 or into the

higher consciousness or the spiritual consciousness.

The same process takes place in our society. According to

Sri Aurobindo, as expounded in The Human Cycle, not only does the

individual evolve, but the whole society, groups, nations evolve.

While he attached great importance to the evolution of the

individual, he also seized the real sense and direction of the

changes in society - the continuous streaming forward of human life in the channels of time, their true law and aim. Thus he

talks about the emergence of the family, the group, the class,

the city - state, the nation and shows how each one of these entities has a distinct soul which manifests itself as in the

development of the individual first in the form of an ego, then

as psyche. The nations too as individuals must pass beyond their

ego and learn to look upon themselves as contributing to the

total harmony and thus make human unity into a reality.

S~irituality or Mysticism For the individual the 'catalyst' for such a process of

conversion is the psychological discipline and practice af yoga

in India, or the adherance to the Mystic Way in the West, (of

which helyn Underhill elaborates in her book Mysticism)

a certain psychological discipline laid down by any r e w o n

for the realisation of God. In the past, this bas been

attempted generally by rithdrnwing away from the world into a

state of meditation on the One Self or Spirit. But,

spirituality according to Sri Aurobindo is not an escape from

life but it is to transform life through a change of

consciousness.

The meaning of spirituality is a new and greater inner life of man founded in the consc:ousness of his true, his in-most, highest and largest self and spirit by which he receives the whole of existence ab a progressive manifestation of the self in the universe and his own life as a field of a possible transformatian in which its divine sense will be found, its potmtialitie highly evolved, the now imperfect forms changed into an image of the divine perfection, and an effort not only to see but to live out these greater possiblities of the bein "And this consciousness of his true self and spirit must bring with it a consciousness too of the oneness of the individual and the race and a harmonious unity of the life of man with the spirit in Nature and the spirit of the universe.6"

Mysticism is the essence of all spiritual experience found in

its intensive form in all religion.Encyc1opedea Britannica de-

fines mysticism as "the immediate experience of oneness with

ulitmate Reality. (E.B.Vol.15, p.1129) To use Bnersonian terms,

it is the yearning of the soul for the oversoul. According to

Evelyn Underhill, mysticism is "the expreSSi0n of the innate

tendency of the human spirit towards complete harmony with the

transcendental order.?' It represents an intense quest and

direct communion with Absolute Truth, God, Divine or Transcendent

Reality. Although the mystic's experience is colored and

conditioned by his o m temperament and by his theological

education, his essential spiritual experience rises above all

creed m d is shared by other mystics as well. It is the

cormnunlcation of the human soul with the Divine, not necessarily

in any religious form. but enlightened by a sense of the Inflnite

and the nernal.

According to Chambers Dictionary, mystic means "sacredly

obscure or secret, involving a sacred or a secret meaning hl&%er*

from the eyes of the ordinary person, only revealed to a spiritu-

ally enlightened mind." (C.D.p.708) This suggests that the mystic

ordinary mind. In distinguishing the mystic approach to life

from ours, Sri Aurobindo says:

The mystic feels real and present, even ever-present to his experience, intimate to his being, truths which to the ordinary reader are intellectual abstractions or metaphysical speculations ... He uses words and images in order to convey to the mind some perceptin, some figure of that which is beyond thought. To the mystic there is no such thing as an abstraction...The mystical poet can only describe what he has felt or seen or experienced through exact vision, close contact or identity and leave it to the general reader to understand or not to understand or misunderstand according to his capacity.8

But one must remember that mysticism being in its pure

form "the science of union with the Absolute "entails not a

sharpline but rather an infinite series of gradations between

sensual experience extending itself into supersensual experience

and finally passing into that state where the distinction of

subject and object collapses and perfect union is attained." g

The mystic attains to this union; the poet is in the

process. All life being touched by the mystical feeling is

fundamentally the source of all arts which essentially seek to

express a deeper truth of life. The mystic dwells in it, the

artist who i~ touched by the mystical hovers back and forth and

glimpees'the Real and fuLctions as mediator between humanity

and the vision of Divinity.

Mysticism then means all moments where the spiritual is experienced by the innermost in man and apprehended with a sense of identity of one's self with the One Self or Spirlt which brings concrete knowledge of the Real. The luminous spark of the Divlne consciousness within us reaches out and manifests the higher, unified spiritual consciousness beymd the mind.

Poets, since time immemorial have expressed through image

and rhyme the highest of man's mystical experience. The Vedic

verses are the best examples of the highest spiritual experience

of man being expressed in poetry, but in terms of the physical.

Today, mystical experience or mystical perception, by which is

meant "a certain kind of inner seeing and feeling of things, a

way which to the intellect would aeem occult and visionaryn,10

has to be and is being expressed in terms of modern experience.

Evolution today, is at that point of time nhere the poet a8

part of an age, is involved in a kind of seeing, if not experi-

encing, of the inmost things in man, lLie and nature, of the

Divinity or man and his oneness with the Spirit In Nature and +be

Spirit of the Universe. In other words, if we take the progess

of poetry as an index of an advance of the cultural mind of

tnuprnlty which has enlarged its scope by a constant ratsing af

the scale of the soul's experience, then It "has now risen to a

height and breadth of intellectual vision and activitym.ll beyond

the purely mental, which often borders on tne mystical

Poetic Theory.

In this framework let us redefine the nature of poetry

according to Sri Aurobindo. The systematic presentation of Srl

Aurobindo's aesthetic theory as evolved in The Future Poetlg

gives us an insight into a credo of poetic criticism and aesthet-

ics which is based on his formulations on life which according to

him, is constantly manifesting itself in a progressive and evolu-

tionary manner. This movement is reflected in poetry and shows

itself in a sort of evolution from the objective to the inward

and from the inward to the inmost, the spiritual. Before

elaborating upon the process of poetic evolution, let us define

according to him, the essential nature and law of poetry.

Poetry is neither a mere pleasure of the imagination nor matter of faultless technique. It is; A divine Ananda, a delight interpretative, creative, revealing, formative, one might say an inverse reflection of the joy which the universal soul has felt in its great release of energy when it rang out into the rhythic forms of the universe, the spiritual truth, the l u g e interpretative idea. the life, the power, the original creative vision. such spiritual joy is that which the s o ~ l of the poet reels and which, when he can conquer the huaun difficultiea of his task he succeeds in pouring also into all those who are prepared to receive it. And thir delight is not merely a godlike pastime, it is r great formative and illuminative power.12

The true creator of poetry is the soul and not the Frrtelli-

eence, the imagination or tho ear which serve only as lnstru-

ments. It is through the rhythmic word that th? poet expresses

his self vision and world vision which extends itself to all

experience. What we have lost is the power or poetic force af

words to raise vibrations, though language seems to have "galneb

in precision, clarity, dtility.13" Poetry then must regain that

original element in language and make pcssible a erect

expression of an experience which is beyond the emotional or the

intellectual.

Poetry then, is the expression and movement of a spiritual

excitement caused by a vision in the soul. The vision may be of

anything - Nature, Man or God. In the case of the highest kind of poetry it is the soul which sees and the eye, sense, heart, mind

are its passlve instruments. When the excitement is other than

spiritual, be it intellectual or emotional and its expression is

not transmuted by the spiritual, then a different kind of poetry

is created.

There is a distinction made between two elements in poetic

speech--the outward or instrumental and the inner or spiritual.

In thought there is the intellectual idea which is precise and

definite and the soul idea which exceeds the whole reality of the

thing expressed. Similarly in emotion there is a soul of emotion

which 18 the very experience oi the soul. Lastly in the poetical

men114 of object6 the inner 18 expressed in terme of ths truth of

life and truth of nature which -bodies at once beauty and truth.

But it is only the higher cadences of poetry that bring us close

to these inner dim~nsions and not merely the outer flawless style

of poetry. This then is the source of that intensity which is the

stamp of h i ~ h poetical speech.

The highest poetic expression of the deepest spiritual reality is

possible only when the three highest intensities meet and become

indissolubly one. The hlghest Intensity of rhythmic movement, of

verbal form, of style and of thought and lastly the intensity of

the soul's vision of truth. It is the inefficiency of any one of

these which mark the inequalities ln the work of poets.Hence the

highest kind of poetry is rare because it is a matter of these

three intensities merging on a certain level. It is in t W s sense

that a series of gradations of perfection in poetry is achieved

- such as adequateness, effectivity, illumination of language, purity of insplratlon or finally that of inevitability of langu-

age. The last kind of speech -that of inevitability -is a speech

pure and true and is quint essentially the essence of convincing-

ly perfect utterance.Sr1 Aurobindo cites a few instances of lines *

in earlier poetry as examples-Keats'Charmed magic casements,open-

ing on the foam/Of perilious seas in faery lands forlornm; Words-

worth's *The Winds come to me from the fields of sleepn, and

Shakespeare's "Macbeth has murdered sleepnand lines from origirul

Homer. To work more freely from such a level of intensity or

inspiration is a thing that has not been done very olten. but

certain tendenciea of modern poetry seem to express unconsciourly

such an attempt to prepare for that vision beyond the a l n d .

Poetic Evolution: - Sri Aurobindo talks about how poetic vision too follo*S the

evolution of the human mind. The evolution cf English poetry is

singled out because *it follows w s t faithfully the natural

ascending curve of the human spirit." Though the fundmnental

nature, function and law of poetry are the same, it evolves in t?rr

dense that it brings out increasingly the latent powers and forms

and develops them from the simple to the more complex, the

superficial to the more profound. In the beginning the mlnd of

man takes up physicality and life and develops and enriches them

urrtil it exseeds itself in them. 81s view is turned on the

outward physical world and on his o m life of outward action. All

his emotions, his thoughts and even his religious ideas are

expressed in forms and figures of the physical life and physical

Nature. The poets who wrote the story of life in such a manner

are Homer and Chaucer. Chaucer's is the poetic observation of

ordinary life and character in good humour. He does not seek to

make a deeper study of the characters involved. In other words,

there is no interpretation, there is a clear and lucid

presentation, a vivid reflection of the external life of man.

The poets who follow are the Elizabethans and what is expre-

ssed ln their poetry is the passion and romance,the joy and p i n ,

t h e wonder and t e r r o r , t he beauty and the ugl lnees of exis tence .

The poet " turns everything i n t o moved thooght and sentiment and

sensa t ion of the l i f e - s o u l , the d e s i r e soul ln him which f i r s t

fo rces i t s e l f on h i s i n t rospec t ion rtpn he %ins t o go lmmrd.*l

The general poetry of t he time s a t i s f i e d t h e reader througb

emotion and the ' e l an v i t a l -o r t he v i t a l / e a o t i o n a l p lay of

l i f e , f e e l i n g and th inking, t he joy of l i f e i s w h a t is powerfully

exprersed. Shakespeare no doubt s tands a t t h e top , and Marlowe and

Spenser a r e a s t e p above the r e s t i n the i n t e r p r e t a t i v e v i s i o n of

l i f e .

S r i Auroblneo wr i t e s abour Shakespeare: - H i s way indeed i s not so much the poet himself t h i n k i n about l i f e , a s l i f e th inldng i t s e l f ou t i n him througfl many months, In many moods and moments, wi th a r i c h throng of f i n e thought e f f e c t s , but no t f o r any c l e a r sum of i n t e l l e c t u a l v i s ion or t o any high power of e i t h e r i dea l o r s p i r i t u a l r e su l t . 15

What Shakespeare sees of man i s h i s cha rac te r , pass ion and

a c t i o n . what i s c r ea t ed i s a romantic world i n i ts t r u e sense-

f i l l e d with the power of l i f e .

The next immediate s t e p of English poetry i s when " the

thought-mind i s no longer ca r r i ed a long i n the wave of l i f e , bu t

detaches i t s e l f from i t t o observe and r e f l e c t upon i t . " The poe t

begins t o ques t ion th ings around him, r a t i o n a l l s e s and ana lyses

t h e workings of Nature and of himself. The i n t e l l e c t u a l c l a s s i c

form becomes t h e best mode of' expression. A t i t s very b e s t t h e

movement r l s e s t o the c l a s s i c a l pe r fec t ion of Milton end dur ing

other times into the poetry of Dryden and Pope. The hallmark of

this age of poetry Fs its supreme craftsmanship and its sheer

intellectvurlity cancernLng itself with the outer aspects of

thought and life.

The eighteenth century poetry aabodied brazen intellectual-

ism minus emotion and the following sge suung to the other side

and burst upon revealipa vision. A light from another, higher

sphere as it were, broke upon the poetic intelligence of the

time. The intellect was put to much greater use with the powers

of inspiration, imagination and i~tuition. The result ras a more

profound understanding and thereby interpretation of life, m,

Nature and Cod. This is the strain of Romantic poetry with its

wider and more comprehensive use of intelligence enctnu~jassing

more varied and greater expressions of truth.

Romantic poetry pierces beyond the mind and glimpses Into

the world beyond. In more ways than one the Romantic age and its

poetry are pointers towards the modern. It is the beginning of a

'pronounced and conscious subjectivity' in literature and poetry

in particular. Inspired by the ideas of the French Revolution,

the English Romantic poets voiced the new spirit of the times.

Eighteenth century Romanticism believed in an organic

vislon of Life conceiving history as an evolutionary process

manifesting successively or progressively the spirit that was at

its core which represented or embodied an absolute value. ~veryth;?

in, the World, Nature and the Cosmos are simply the mysterious m*b

worklrnr

ofthis totality, of this Unified Spirit behind man, nature and

the Universe which Wordsworth experiences and expresses so often

in his poetry.

Such are the first signs af 'self consciousness' expressed

in terms of the relation of subject to object. In greater momenta

of experience we see how the English Romsntic poets are able to

unify or even transcend the subject-object dichotomy with the

help of their imagination and intuition.

Romantic poetry, then, gave the first indications of the

characteristics of the poetry of the future by being able

to see and feel the One Self and Spirit behind all things; in

expressing - revealing the truths of the spirit. Though, essen- tially or at Its best the vision of Romantic poetry was founded

in the mystical, its mode of expression was through the heart or

emotions. Therefore the expression of Romantic poetry is lucid,

simple, directly spontaneous, expressed in 'a spontaneous

overflow of powerful feeling'.

The Philosophic Mystic node of Expression - But, because the process of evolution-- be it of life, man

or the human mind-- seeks a more complete experience of the Real,

proceeds from a simpler to a more complex and richer

domain of experience which leads to a greater and more perfect

experience of the Real. The mystic truths having been intuitively

experienced through the heart, have to be totally coaprehended by

the intellect as well.

In other words 'the growth of a philoaopbical thought con-

tent in poetry is inevitable, for man's consciousness in it6

evolutionary march is driving towards a consamation which in-

cludes and presupposes a developtent along that line.*17

The Rcmmntic idea of Pancy or Imagination has to be and 1s today

replaced by thought--abstract metaphysical thought. Poetry then

was an 8malgum of mystic perceptions, experiences, realisations

expressed in sensitive and aesthetlc terms and figures. Today

'thought' is the medium to articulate poetic experience.

'Thought- not in the sense of the eighteenth century cut/and dry

rational mode of expression, but a more comprehensive intellectu-

alism which accommodates abstract, philosopbhal and even spirit-

ual thought and experience.

Today the poet being strongly intellectual feels a strong

need to 'explain' a mystic vision or perception or experience to

himself and to others. It is such a kind of intellect, that is

today in the forefront, and plays a major role in man's

creativity. Man has to rise from an emotional nature to a mental

poise and on to an intellectual one which would encompass the

field of philosophical and idealistic activities. Logically then,

we should move into higher realms even beyond the intellectual or

philosophical field of thought into the Spirit~al thought world-

thus further enlarging and widening the fraae of poetry.

mrlier this process of thought was abrent, firstly, because

the process of evolution 'ook its own course of growth and sec

ondly, because it was felt thztt the mind or the intellect would

shut out the lights beyond it. Yhat was sought was to establish a

direct contact with the Real. The reault was pura spiritual

poetry as in the Vedic hymns, There have been other kinds of

semi-spiritual, religious,ocrult, allegoric poetry which spoke of

the mystical in terms of the emotional, theological or purely

mental. There have also been instances in the past, to cite only

two such poets as Donne and Blake who brought about such an

alchemy to bear upon the processes of their poetry that the

merely religious was transformed into mystic poetry.

Ye must be aware that poetry does not become mystic by merely

addressing the beloved as goddess as in Elizabethan poetry, but

is made of "a fine temper, a more subtle sensitiveness and takes

a kind of artistic wizardry to tune the body into a rhythm of the

spirit."l8

What distinguishes modern spiritual consciousness or percep-

tion from the early expression or vision of the mystical is its

complex, intellectual logic. For example, the expression of the

Upanishadic spiritual experience is a direct record of the funds-

mental and original experience in its "pristine purity and

perfection and essential slmplicity"l9. The modern mind is not

satisfied with such an expression and needs a deeper intellectwrl

logic to utiafy the subtle movement of modern consciouanesr.

Modern poetry retains the rationality, clarity and concreetness of perception of the scientific Spirit but is rounded aff with a halo of msgic and mirecle20. Though the mode or tone is scientific which is the natural law of our age, the poetry is transported and lifted on to a higher level *Iten transcribing a mystic <ision, or perception or experience. What is involved in its process af creation is a science of the spirit just as we have science of aatter.20

In modern times the thought elenent and the ptfiilosophical

factor give form to the formless and brlng home to us the full-

ness of spiritual consciousness. Modern poetry touched by a

mystical perception of things has the divlne urge but still

retains the human flavour because it is clothed in tt'e experience

of the modern world.

The Victorian era - Coming back to the era after the Romantic age in poetry, we

see during the Victorian age, an attempt to strengthen the intel-

lectual basis and therefore make more rich its thought content.

Inspiration, intuition and high imagination of the Romantic poets

gave way to a more artistic intellectualism with a greater breath

of the modern temper. But in general what Crept into literature

was also what was characteristic of the times - a self indul-

gence, a smugness of commercial middle class prosperity. Though

the Victorian poetry reflected the growing doubt of the age as a

result of utilitarianism and the mechanisation of life, It

failed to embody and inspire the intensity of the exploring mind

of the age. The age of Realism took over that of Romanticism. In

tta Victorian era the subject-object relationship .

was subsequently followed by the object-subject relationship.

What the age served best was as a period of tmmsltion to tbe

twentieth century modern temper. In literature, its many alded

intelligence helped in the enrichment and streagthening of

language capable of expressing more subtle thought. The

discontentment with the then contemporary moulds, the intensely

felt inadequacy to meet the future, but a seebing nevertheless

after new things and a spirit of innovation m a r k , the preparation

for the coming age.

The Twentieth Century Temper

To beg a simplistic explanation of may be already k n o m

facts let us very briefly touch upon the mood of the late nine-

teenth century and the early twentieth, because it is this period

that we are primarily concerned with in our study. Taking for

granted the knowledge of those events, such as the French Revolu-

tion or the Industrial Revolution, not to mention others which

led to the crisis that modern man was faced with during the early

years of this century, let US see what was emerging or rather

'dissolving1 out of all these movements. 'Dissolving', because

What was for ages accepted as solid ground suddenly seemed to

give way.

The world picture, or what people believed to be 'reality' fell

into piece.. Physically, the infinity of the coemoa becasre noth-

led to the explanation that all motion is merely relative. Emo-

tionally, the individual took reeourse to the saying of %rang-

ine, the hero of a Dadnistic novel - -La vie est une chose Vrai- ment idiote*. This sentiment boldly voiced by Dadaism had al-

ready found artiEFtlc expression in Expressionlm which took riter

Impressionism. 4Rmt au, happening was the collapse of faith in

not only religious institutions but in the basic values of s0Cie-

ty. The application of science - the fruit of man's mental endea- vour--to life was not all positive." In other words science

conquering the forces of nature and harnessing them to man's

requirements proved not quite beneficial or rather proved a

disaster to the 'spiritual' man," Technology completely mecha-

nised existence, and Cod was declared 'dead' by Nletzshe, A ~ r l d

without God had no centre. "Modern man reached N s inmost infer-

nal circle of that path of suffering which is as absurd as it had

become necessary.'21

Moreover Darwin, Marx and Freud further reinforced such a

process of thought. Man's rational mind seemed to fail him in the

face of such uncertainty. He had no outer structure to hold on to

He was forced to look for 'autre chose'. It was impossible to go

back, the present was all uncertainty, the future too remote and

vague.

As the nee6 for change intensified the only recourse left to man

was to look within at his inner self. It is here that the quest

Of the mystic begins. In the process of discovering the self

man reoriented his perception of things around him.

The very reordering of life and Intelligence was what was

demanded. The dark, ego-self was as If threatened by a

larger engulfment of "all that we protect ourselves from feeling

too intensely."22 Longing for those mysterious depths within aad

all the conflict and crisis that goes with it *as b r w h t out

into the poet's aesthetic orblt to be transformed to reveal "far

more about our whole contemporary meaning than we ever thought

possible."23 No more res the poet separated culturally and geo-

graphically. He voiced the experience, the crisis of the contem-

porary man. A widening of sympathies and of sensibility was

evident in contemporary poetry. What began in the middle of the

nineteenth century as an exchange of literature and therefore

culture, resulted in an out pouring of transcontinental- trans-

cultural expression in the twentieth century as seen especially

in the poetry of T.S.Eliot.

Politically, socially and economically this meant a widening

of horizons - from nationalism to Internationalism. Increasingly the world began to be looked upon as one a view point inevitable

for the very survival of the human race. Poetry voiced this new

felt unity. Nationalism, Democracy were no more mere political

issues, they took on a far greater meaning for poets such as Walt

Whitman and Edward Carpenter. It was a sense of 'spiritual1

Democracy, expressing a concrete experience of unity between man

and man, man and nation, man and the world and above all man and

God.

No more was a poet limited to his own country. The impending

doom and coming catastrophe of the future envisianed bY ii.B.YmtS

in his "Second Coming" stirred one and all. The intense morbidity

and hopelessness of existence voiced by T.S.Eliot in sMne of his

poems vas representive of the outcry of mind throttled with th

exigencies of World Mar I and the Spanish Civil War as a result %

technology used for destructive purposes.

As a result of the 'sick' reality of existence ~EI-I was forced

to look beyond what mind could offer, seeking a newer and mare

meaningful equilibrium. The quest inevitably turned towards the

niystical because the best of man's mind had failed to provide a

foundation of lasting peace and happiness for mankind.

The Characteristics of Early Twentieth Centurg Poetry - As poets have always been the seers or the avant gerde

section of society, they were the ones to express the mood of the

age and manifest the elements of the spiritual in their poetry.

But in what manner did the modern poets go about translating this

element of the spiritual? What was the most characteristic

hallmark of early twentieth century ? poetry was their pursuit,

much more than their predecessors,-the bent of their personality.

The early twentieth century poets took recourse to a kind

of psychological inwardness. At the same time, began to accommoda~

the complexities and passions of contemporary experience.

The poetry of the period-considering it as an organic whole

in its interaction with each other seems to have "evolved out of

a aerioue need for an encompaeeing poetry; one completely in-

volved with what their live. really meant subjectively. T-b, &

reflects the ultimate pressure on modern sensibility to under-

stand itself.*24 It is the Subjective search far "Who we are?"

that embodies the modern sequence and thereby poetry became an ae

thetic lyrical construct opening up to "those pressures in times

of cultural and psychological crisis, when all past certainties

bsve many W been thrown chaotically into question.'25 W t

was being cultivated was a special kind of subjectivity; an

adventure of increasing self discovery was on its way as a result

of the events of the past and the possibilities opening up in the

future.

What was emerging was a newness of vision such as in the

poetry of Walt Yhitman, W.B.Yeats and T.S.Eliot. Though their

feet rested securely on traditional/cultural ground there was "a

strailling towards a deeper, more potent, supra-intellectual ~ n d

supra- vital vision of things."26 The turn of the modern mind

opened itself to the vision of its inner Self, and its relation

to the Spirit of Nature, to the univeree and the eternal but

without losing hold on tradition, on life and on earth.

The break was from mechanization, institutionalisation for

their own sake so as not to lose *touch with the springs of joy

and vitality -delight of the senses, tradition and ritual, self-

realization within a truly human context."27 For example, W.B.

Yeats who drew inspiration from his Celtic past, and tried to re-

establish vital continuities with the past was also coraborating

what was strengthening, widening and truly meaningiul In the presrnfr

The usa and reinterpretation of Myth was the intention of th8

moderns to understand the colaplexity of the self in the modern ma.

And by bringing myth into the modern world the poet achieved in

giving universal meaning to his poetry.

concept of self.

What do re mean when we refer to the 'self' of the poet in

modern poetry? Terence Diggory in Yeats and American Poetrx: The

Tradition of the Self haa at length and in detail discussed the

problem or rather the tradition of the self in regard to modern

poets. It would suffice for as to explain briefly as to what we

would mean when we use the term self in our present study.

Earlier we talked about how In the modern world the poet

increasingly followed his individual bent of personality and sang

the song of his self more conftdently than ever before. In

other words the subject of their poetry became their 'self.' The

view that the self or interior personality could become a 'sub-

ject' or be 'created' distinguishes the modern self from its

origin in the romantic theory of artistic self-expression. But in

this context or framework, the speaker in a poem can be identi-

fied through auto biographical detail with the poet himself, as

in Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey" or Yeat's "The Towerw, but with

an important difference.

As Hrs.Diggory sums it up; "whereas Wordsworth views himself

in terms of past stages of his life - the child sensualist and adolescent pantheist - Yeats views himself in terms of past creations-the fictional Hanrahan and even the restored Tower

itself. For Wordsworth, the self was given or, at moat, dlacov-

ered; for Yeats, the self was created. In the process of being

created, the self becomes distanced or externallzed. It ia liter-

ally exprerred, but not as in r a s ~ t i c expression, becrure

Yeat's externalized self differs from the internal self where it

originated. Once externalized, the self is viewed not as the

poet's content but rather as a form to be entered lnt0."28

Secondly this entails another divergence from ra!iantiC self-

expression. In the romantic theory there is an identity between

whst is expressed and what is coatained Ln the poet's true self-

There is a harmony between the subjective and objective experi-

ence. But to the modern poet both these mole% will imply differ-

ent or disparate experience. Subjectively, the poet feels himself

to be the creator of the world, but objectively, he may feel

quite helpless In the face of the world's intrasigence. Neverthe-

less, the externalised seLf of the poet sfrves as a source of

inspiration to combat the feeling of helplessness before the

world. "To enjoy the sanction of external authority and yet to

recognize that authority as the self is the definitive experience

of the tradition of the selfW29, says Terence Diggory.

Finally this leads to the poet being regarded "as another

Adam who names the world a new." The creation of a self by the

act of writing extends the poet's experience as well as that of

the reader. What takes place in the case of the romantic

poet, is merely a recording of preexisting experience expressed

by the self that already exists. As discussed earlier in the

chapter, the modern poet, in order to comprehend the world and

what lies beyond it takes recourse to his intellect; and there-

fore the stsnce of the self as being created different or objec-

tified from the already existing self of the poet helps in better

expressing the complexities of the modem 8ensibillt.y.

No doubt, the romantic poets "experienced" passion,

unlike the moderns who had to create it. But while experience

refers to a sense of wholeness which can be felt, it cannot

be 'known' which is desirable for the moderns. Hence modern

poetry has more of a thea'.rical element about it than their

Romtic predecessor's *hose work suffered at times partly be-

cause of their sense of the moral.

What is interesting to note is that the dramatic character

involved in the dramatisation of experience in modern poetry, as

in Whitinan's "Song of Myzelf", is that the poet is forced to

identify himself with the character, though the character cannot

bc identified with the poet. "Something of the character is the

author, but something else is notU3O, declares Diggory. This

.ncy be the paradox of personality and impersonality that

T.S.Ellot talks about in regard to modern poetry.

In the case of the romantic doctrine, life- is translated or

becomes art; whereas in the modern instance the intellectual

distinction between art and life 1s also obliterated because art

becomes life. Therefore, according to Diggory.

the reader must adjust to an enlargement of the romantic's clam for the poet's heroic role, since in the tradition of the self, the poet is not merely a seer but a man of action whose deeds are his poems. 31

Poetry of the Future

We must remember that Sri Aurobindo wrote his The Future

Poetry during the 1920's. Early twentieth century poetry would

then be 'recent' if not contemporary. Therefore, after having

traced the upward curve of English poetry in The Future

Poetry,upto the poetry of the early modern poets, he posed the

questiorr as to whether the next step in the scale of ascension

m u l d be taken or wheter "it w ~ l l be missed once more with a fall

back to another retracing of the psychological circuit.'72

Because, M the one hand the straining of tbe intelect hsS beell

stretched to its limits of elasticity, will it bring about

"a recoil to a straining for unbridled vital, emotional snd

senaotional experier,ce."33 The question is whether the race rdll

opt for a greater mould or 'instead a collapse and decadence

intervene."34

The one thing above the intellect is the spirit, and there-

fore if our intellect has to go forward, it "must open nor to an

understanding and seeing spirituality which will be an illumined

self knowledge and Cod - knowledge an3 a world knowledge too

tranamuted in that greater light will spiritualise the whole vie*

and motive of our existence."35 In such a crises,the hope of

the race would lie in "the fidelity of its intellect to the

larger perceptions it now has of the greater self of humanity,

the turning of its will to the inception of delivering forms of

thought, art and social endeavour which arise from those percep-

tions and the raising of the intellectual mind to the intuitive

supra-intellectual spiritual consciousness."36 The expression of

the liberated intellect will have to go in pursuit of the

revelation of the truths of the spirit.

The poetry of the future "will be a voice of eternal thinge

ralrring to r new eignificance and to r great satlatied joy in

expriencing the events and emutionr and trmrriancee of lire, th.

changing of the steps of an eternal manifeatation; It will

be the expreilaion of the very self of nature; it will ba a

creative and interpretative revelation of the infinite truth of

existence and of the universal delight and bea3ity and of a

greater spiritusliaed vision and power of life"37.

Sole of the profound tendencies of the creative mind uf petil

such as Walt #itman, W.B.Yeats and T.S.Eliot seem to reflect at

times, nuch tones of the inner states of the donsin of aysric

percertion. The best strains of Whitman's poetry reveals "the

God who is the Self of all things and beings, the Life of' the

universe, the Divinity in man," and expresses, "all the emotion

and delight of the endeavour of the human soul to discover the

touch and Joy of that Divinity within him ir! whom he feels the

mighty founts of his o m Seing and life and effort and his full-

ness and unity with all cosmic experience and with Nature and

with all creatures.*38

W.B. Yeat's poetry and its symbols open up to the supernatu-

ral and occult worlds and "allow us to move among the beings and

scenes, images and influences and presences of the psychic king-

doms." He seems to have access to these with a close directness

that comes from intimate vision and feeling,'3Q as though

these things were a part of his living experience.

There is something in the vision of Eliot's best poetry

which searches "all the ways of the present and interpret deeply

to man the aense of that which is making him and which he is

making: it will reveal the divinity in all its dls(yisem, face

all even t h t is u&ly and terrible and baffling ln t b et

our a c t w Luarn 1ife,*40.

But if we are looking for a poetry born direct irca and

full of the power of the spirit, we have it in the poetry 0f Sri

Aurobindo. One must not forget thst unlike the poets lacntiooed

above, who at times expressed truths of the spirit, Sri W 0 b i n d o

was a great yogi, a mystic philosopher who ins3 spbitvsl expai-

ences and who formed a vier of U e in harmony with his expui-

ence. But this does not make him gay less a poet. He 1s believed

to have said, *I was a poet and a politician not a philosopfnr..4

Elsewhere he remarked,"I em justifying a poet's right to think as

well as to see and feel, his right to 'dare to philosuphlae."42

Because his poetry arises directly from spiritual experience,

it speaks of the inmost things, with great intimacy and sure

knowledge. Though it is filled with a sense of the Eternal, it

does not speak in the conventional tones of traditional religioa,

but as a voice of intuitive experience and the rhythm and chant

of the revelation of an eternal presence."43

The change in the substance or subject or vision of poehy ,

brought with it necessarily a change in its forms, that is, in

its speech and in its rhythm.

Change in Rhythm.

During the early twentieth century poetry it was the change in

rythm which marked the change in outlook. Rhythm being the soul ok

poetry, a change in its movement was es8entlal if poetry hsd

to echo a greater spirit. It is not merely an irregular use or

metre t h t war nought but quite a revolution in the very metho%

of poetic rhytha. Walt Whitman the chupion and prophet of

'Democracy', became the representative of the neu and free form

of poetic rhythm. M.L. Rosenthal presents a similar point of

view. 'A new genre, the modern poetic sequence has evolved over

the past century and half or longer. It tas emerged so naturally,

so without fanfare, as hardly to have been noticed. It's preeence

becones abundantly obvious, for the modern sequence is the decisive

form toward which all the developent of modern poetry have tendd.

It is the genre which best mcolnpasses the shift In sensibility

exemplified by starting a long poetic work "I celebrate myself,

and sing myselfW44.

In his own manner he agreed that the creation of something

new artistically such as Pound's "Cantos" and Walt Whitman's

"Song of Myselfw was the result of poetic evolution itself. "How

could this have happened? One explanation, we believe is the

character of poetic evolution itself. It is easy to detect super-

ficial signs of newness: departures from traditional rhyme and

metre, the absence of explanatory or narrative links between

images or other evocative centres, the use of a vocabulary and

subject matter to see the bearing of such Signs. If not simply

disregarded they are usually thought peripheral, although they

mark vast shifts of psychic direction and of the axes of aesthet-

Because the poem, as an aesthetic lyrical construct sought

to encompass opposite and diverse energies that the need arose to

pursue "new thresholds and new anatomies." It was thus that the

new rhytlwns were strung together "breaking awsy from all the old

hampering restrictions snd find a new principle of harmony in

accordance with the freedom, the breadth and largeness of view,

the fineness of feeling and sensation of the modern Spirit,

some form which shall have the liberty of proae and yet command

the intensflied heights and fluctuations and falls of the cadence

of poetry."46

Change in Style

The change in vision and in rhythm having fulfilled themselves

largely in this manner, we move to the third indispensible ele-

ment in poetry its language ar poetic style. The change in the

former two may at times escape notice, but the more tangible and

appaFent break is clearly indicated in the change of expression.

Following the evolution of poetic vision poetic speech too sought

to express subtler things of the spirit. Ttre 'inmost' thing had

to be said in the 'inmost' way. The effort was also towards a

direct expression on a subtler and more psychological level. The

shift was not from straight forwardness to riCdle making."The

result was rather a shift from relative formality to simplicity

and directness. There is a greater intimacy felt in the language,

an awareness of everyday life, had been brought into poetry more

emphatically than before."47 This was most characteristic of

T.S.Eliotts poetry who transmuted not only ideas but the whole

common place reality around him - the people, the situation, the mood-everything into aspects of himself. Not only was his intel-

lect observing life from above but he absorbed, digested and

reproduced it, a8 the myriad dlmensions of his 'eelf'. The result

uas an expression of the crisis faced by modern %an which Was

so powerful ttiat its language shocks us, jolts us into new

vie* points, shedding old restrictions of 'poetic'lanw as it

forces itself with a sense of urgency upon our sensibility.

CONCLUSION

Ln the following chapters, a closer readLng and study will

be made of the mystical aspect, as being reflected in a unique

manner in some of the poetry of Walt Whitman, V.B.Yeats and

T.S. Eliot. Moreover, we would explore as to how and to what

extent the works of these representative poets of o m early

modern era reflect the che.nge in rhythm and style.

The last chapter on Sri Aurobindc's poetry would also be

devoted to a similar kind of stu*. It would exemplify i c to & a t

extent the mystical elements or the quest for the spiritual or

mystic perceptions as seen in some of the works of the three poet

finds fulfilment in the spiritual poetry of Sri Aurobindo.

For, quite evidently the poetry of the time was movLng

towards a sense of inner 'existence' which in itself was deepenin

into a greater subjectivity. It was a subjectivity not only of me

temperament as was the instance during the nineteenth century but

"a universal subjectivity of the whole spirit, an attempt towards

Closeness and identity, a greater community of the individual

with the universal soul and mind.nk8

Communion of the soul with God was no more a matter of

religion alone, but was brought intc the larger and more common

p lace frame work of man's experience of l i f e and t h e universe . I t

marked an apparent breaking of the bonds of t he mental man and a

movement towards what l a y beyond it. A s e l ? exceeding of t h e

intellect augured t h e i n i t i a l t r a v a i l of a new b i r t h . I n t h e

words of Sri Aurobindo, " these tt&ngs have no t al l a r r i v e d , bu t

they a r e on the way and t h e f i r s t m v e a of t h e surge have

a l ready broken over t h e dry beaches of t he age of reason."hg

NOTES Am) RLTERENCES -- 1. Sri Aurohindo, The Ltfe Dlvirze (PDndicherry :

Sri Aurobindo Ashram,1987), p.624.

2. NolfIli Kanta Cupta, Collected Works (Pondicherry : S.A.I.C.E.,1971),, 351-

3. sri Aurobindo, On Himself (Pondicherry : Sri Aurobindo ~ s b m ) , p.95.

4. Ibid., p.95.

5. Ibid., p. 95.

6. Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetr (Pondicherry : Sri Aurobindo A s h r a m ~ ) ~ 9 - 2 ~

7. Evelyn Underhill M sticism ( Great Britain : Methuen and co Ltd,l$6+

8. Sri Aurobindo, Letters of Sri Aurobindo (Third Serles) (Bombay : Sri Aurobindo Circle,19491,p. 39-40.

9. Evelyn Underhill, M sticism (Great Britain : Methuen and Co Ltd,l962), pY1

10. Sri Aurobindo, Life -Literature-Yoga (Pondicherry : Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1967), p.73.

11. Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetr (Pondicherry : Sri Aurobindo A s h r a m l g ~ S d l .

12. Ibid., p.10.

13. Ibid., p.13.

14. bid., p.182.

15. Ibid., p.69.

16. ~bld., p.77.

1'7. Nolini Ksnta Gupta, Collected Works (Pondicherry : Sri Aurobindo ~shram,lg7l),,II, p.71.

18. Ibid., p.66.

19. Ibid., p.71.

20. Ibid., p.75.

21. Egon Friedell, A Cultural History Of The Modern Age, "Tne crisis of the Eurcpean Soul from the Congress of Vienna to the first World Yarn. Vol III., p.3.

22. M.LJlosentha1, Modem Poets ( London : Oxford ~ n i v .~rees,)p.3.

23. Ibid., p.3.

24. M.L.Rosenthe.1, The Modem Poetic Sequence (Oxford : Oxford Llniv .Press, l ' m p . F

25. Ibid., p.3.

26. Sri Aurobindo The Future Portr (Pondicherry : Sri ~urobindo* A ~ h ~ 5 ) d l .

27. M.L.Rosentha1 The MoaeTn Poets (London : Oxford ~ n i v ~ r e Z Z 7 9 6 G . 9.

28. Terence Diggory, The Tradition Of self (Princeton : Princeton ~ni-ress, 1983),p.5.

29. mid., p.5.

30. Ibid., p.114.

31. Ibid., p7

32. Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetr (Pondicherry : Sri Aurobindo A= 6 p.238.

33. Ibid., p.239.

34. Ibid., p.239.

35. Ibid., p.239.

36. Ibid., p.239.

37. Ibid., p.238.

38. Ibid., p.240.

39. Ibid., p.242.

40. Ibid., p.243.

41. Sri Aurobindo On Himself ( Pondicherry : S r l ~ u r o b i n ~ Aiihrsm, 1972), p.374-

42. S r i Aurobindo. S a v i t r i ( L e t t e r s ) ( Pondicherry : S r i Auroblndo Ashram, 19851, p.836.

43. S r i Aurobindo, The Future Poet r (Pondlcherry : S r i Aurobindo Ashram, 1 9 d . 240.

411. M.L.Rosentha1, Modern Poets ( London : Oxford Univ,~ress),.-

45. Ibid., p . 1 0 .

46. S r i Aurobindo The Future Poet r ( Pondicherry : Ar 1 ~ u r o b i h o Ashram, 1 ~ ! p . 1 4 2 -

47. M.L.Rosentha1 The Modern Poets ( Londan : Oxford l J n i ; . ~ s s ) , b -

48. S r l Aurobindo The Future Poet r ( Pcndizherrg : S r i Aurobi~db~s=1w+p. 171.

49. I b i d . , p.171.