Flame-Wind

A poem by Sri Aurobindo

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The Future Poetry > On Quantitative Metre



Dactylic tetrameter and pentameter catalectic; an additional foot in the last line; trochee or spondee freely admitted anywhere; first paeon, antibacchius, cretic can replace a dactyl. One or two extra syllables are allowed sometimes at the beginning of the line.

The Future Poetry > Flame-Wind

 poem (in quantitative metre)  1937  Pub: 'On Quantitative Metre (1942)'

Flame-Wind

    A flame-wind ran from the gold of the east,
Leaped on my soul with the breath of a sevenfold noon.
    Wings of the angel, gallop of the beast!
Mind and body on fire, but the heart in swoon.

    O flame, thou bringest the strength of the noon,
But where are the voices of morn and the stillness of eve?
    Where the pale-blue wine of the moon?
Mind and life are in flower, but the heart must grieve.

    Gold in the mind and the life-flame's red
Make of the heavens a splendour, the earth a blaze,
    But the white and rose of the heart are dead.
Flame-wind, pass! I will wait for Love in the silent ways.



Part VII : Pondicherry (Circa 1927-1947) > Poems Published in On Quantitative Metre   



NOTES FROM EDITOR

  1. A handwritten draft of this poem is dated 1937.This draft is entitled “Dream Symbols”. Three other handwritten manuscripts precede the On Quantitative Metre revision work in 1942.




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