An Image

A poem by Sri Aurobindo

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 poem  Circa 1909  Pub: 'Karmayogin (1909)'

An Image

Rushing from Troy like a cloud on the plains the Trojans thundered,
Just as a storm comes thundering, thick with the dust of kingdoms,
Edged with the devious dance of the lightning, so all Troas
Loud with the roar of the chariots, loud with the vaunt and the war-cry,
Rushed from Troywards gleaming with spears and rolled on enormous.
Joyous as ever Paris led them glancing in armour,
Brilliant with gold like a bridegroom, playing with death and the battle
Even as apart in his chamber he played with his beautiful Helen,
Touching her body rejoiced with a low and lyrical laughter,
So he laughed as he smote his foemen. Round him the arrows,
Round him the spears of the Argives sang like the voices of maidens
Trilling the anthem of bridal bliss, the chant hymeneal;
Round him the warriors fell like flowers strewn at a bridal
Red with the beauty of blood.



Part IV : Calcutta and Chandernagore (1907-1910) > Short Poems Published in 1909 and 1910   



NOTES FROM EDITOR

Circa 1909. Published in the Karmayogin on 20 November 1909. (This was the third poem by Sri Aurobindo that he published in the Karmayogin. The first two, “Invitation” and “Who”, were included in Ahana and Other Poems in 1915, and so are included in Part Three of the present volume.) “An Image”, Sri Aurobindo's first published lines in quantitative hexameters, may be related in some way to Ilion, his epic poem in that metre, which he began to write in Alipore Jail (see below, Part Five).





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 sonnet  Published posthumously  Different versions  SABCL & CWSA  Only CWSA