Savitri
The Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo & The Mother

Canto 11Note

Book 16. Part Seven - Pondicherry Circa 1927 – 1947

In some of these poems, as in others of the Six Poems, a quantita-
tive metrical system has been used which seems to have puzzled
some critics, apparently because it does not follow the laws of
quantity obtaining in the ancient classical languages. But those
5laws are quite alien to the rhythm and sound-structure of the
English tongue; the attempt to observe them has always ended
in deserved and inevitable failure. Another system has been fol-
lowed here which is in agreement with the native rhythm of
English speech. There what determines the metrical length or
10brevity of syllables is weight, the weight of the voice emphasis
or the dwelling of the voice upon the sound. Where there is
that emphasis or that dwelling of the voice, the syllable may
be considered metrically long; where both are absent there will
be, normally, a recognisable shortness which can only be cured
15by some aid of consonant weight or other lengthening circum-
stance. All stressed syllables are metrically long in English and
cannot be otherwise, however short the vowel may be, for they
dominate the verse movement; this is a fact which is ignored in
the traditional account of English quantity and which many ex-
20perimenters in quantitative verse have chosen to disregard with
disastrous consequences, — all their genius or skill in metrical
technique could not save them from failure. On the other hand,
a long-vowel syllable can be regarded as metrically long even
if there is no stress upon it. In the quantitative system used in
25these poems this possibility is converted into a law: metrical
length is obligatory for all such natural syllabic longs, while a
short-vowel syllable unstressed is normally short for metrical
purposes unless it is very heavily weighted with consonants. But
the mere occurrence of two or more consonants after a short
30vowel does not by itself make the syllable long as it necessarily
does in Greek, Latin or Sanskrit.
The system may then be reduced to the following rules:
1. All stressed syllables are regarded as metrically long,
as also all syllables supported on a long vowel.
352. All short-vowel syllables not stressed are regarded as
Pondicherry, c. 1927–1947
short, unless they are heavily weighted with consonants. But on
this last point no fixed rule can be given; in each case the ear
must be the judge.
403. There are a great number of sounds in English which
can be regarded according to circumstances either as longs or as
shorts. Here too the ear must decide in each case.
4. English quantity metres cannot be as rigid as the me-
tres of ancient tongues. The rhythm of the language demands
45a certain variability, free or sparing, without which monotony
sets in; accordingly in all English metres modulation is admitted
as possible. Even the most regular rhythms do not altogether
shut out the substitution of other feet than those fixed in the
normal basic arrangement of the line; they admit at least so
50much as is needed to give the necessary pliancy or variety to
the movement. There is sometimes a very free use of such vari-
ations; but they ought not to be allowed to break the basic
movement or overburden or overlay it. The same rule must apply
in quantitative metres; especially in long poems modulations are
55indispensable.
This system is not only not at discord with the sound-
structure of the language, it accords closely with its natural
rhythm; it only regulates and intensifies into metrical pitch and
tone the cadence that is already there even in prose, even in
60daily speech. If we take passages from English literature which
were written as prose but with some intensity of rhythm, its
movement can be at once detected. E.g.
Co˘nsi
_
65de˘r | the˘ li
_
li˘es | o˘f the˘ fie
_
ld, | ho
w the
_
y gro
_
75w; || the
_
y toi
_
l no˘t, |
80nei
_
the˘r do˘ | the
_
y spi
n; || ye˘t I
_
| sa
_
90y u˘nto˘ | yo˘u tha˘t e
_
ve˘n | So
_
lo˘mo˘n |
95i˘n a
_
ll hi˘s | glo
_
ry˘ || wa˘s no˘t a˘rra
yed | li
_
ke u˘nto˘ | o
_
105ne o˘f the
_
se: ||
or again,
Ble
sse˘d a
_
re | the˘ mee
_
115k; | fo˘r the
_
y sha˘ll | i˘nhe
_
ri˘t | the˘ ea
rth | . . . . .
Ble
_
sse˘d a
re | the˘ pu
_
re i˘n hea
_
130rt; | fo˘r the
_
y sha˘ll see
_
| Go
d;
Poems
or again, from Shakespeare’s prose,
Thi˘s goo
dly fra
_
me | the˘ ea
_
145rth see
_
ms to˘ | me˘ a˘ ste
_
ri
le | pro
_
m-
o˘nto˘ry˘, | thi˘s mo
st e
_
xce˘ll|e˘nt ca
_
160no˘py˘ | the˘ ai
_
r, loo
_
k you˘ , | thi˘s
165bra
_
ve o’e
_
rha
ng|i˘ng fi
_
rma˘me˘nt, | thi˘s ma˘je
_
175sti˘c|a˘l roo
_
f fre
_
tte˘d |
180wi˘th go
_
lde˘n fi
_
re |
185and so on with a constant recurrence of the same quantitative
movement all through; or, yet more strikingly,
Ho
_
w a
rt thou
_
| fa
_
195lle˘n fro˘m | Hea
_
ve˘n, O˘ | Lu
_
ci˘fe˘r, | so
n o˘f the˘ |
mo
_
rni˘ng!
205This last sentence can be read indeed as a very perfect hexameter.
The first of these passages could be easily presented as four lines
of free quantitative verse, each independent in its arrangement
of feet, but all swaying in a single rhythm. Shakespeare’s is most
wonderfully balanced in a series of differing four-syllabled, with
210occasional shorter, feet, as if of deliberate purpose, though it is
no intention of the mind but the ear of the poet that has con-
structed this fine design of rhythmic prose. A free quantitative
verse in this kind would be perfectly possible.
A more regular quantitative metre can be of two kinds.
215There could be lines all with the same metrical arrangement
following each other without break or else alternating lines
with a different arrangement for each, forming a stanza, — as
in the practice of accentual metres. But there could also be an
arrangement in strophe and antistrophe as in the Greek chorus.
220In “Thought the Paraclete” the first rule is followed; all
the lines are on the same model. The metre of this poem has a
certain rhythmic similarity to the Latin hendecasyllable which
runs
|
225⌣⌣|
⌣|
⌣|
⌣, e.g.
So
le
_
s | o
_
235cci˘de˘r(e) | e
_
t re˘|di
_
re˘ | po
ssu
_
nt.
No
bi
_
s | cu
_
250m se˘me˘l | o
_
cci˘d|i
_
t bre˘|vi
s lu
_
x,
Pondicherry, c. 1927–1947
260No
_
x e
_
st | pe
rpe˘tu˘(a) | u
_
na˘ | do
_
270rmi˘|e
_
nda˘.*
But here the metre runs
⌣|
⌣⌣|
⌣|
; a trochee
is transferred from the closing flow of trochees to the begin-
280ning of the line, the spondee and dactyl are pushed into the
middle; the last syllable of the closing trochee is most often
dropped altogether. Classical metres cannot always with success
be taken over just as they are into the English rhythm; often
some modifications are needed to make them more malleable.
285In “Moon of Two Hemispheres” the strophe antistrophe
system has been used: the lines of the stanza differ from each
other in the nature and order of the feet, no identity or approach
to identity is imposed; but each line of the antistrophe follows
scrupulously the arrangement of the corresponding line of the
290strophe. An occasional modulation at most is allowed, e.g. the
substitution of a trochee for a spondee. The whole poem, how-
ever, in spite of its metrical variations, follows a single general
rhythmic movement.
“Rose of God”, like a previous poem “In Horis Aeternum”,
295is written in pure stress metre. As stress and high accentual
pitch usually coincide, it is possible to scan accentual metre
on the stress principle and stress metre also can be so written
that it can be scanned as accentual verse; but pure stress metre
depends entirely on stress ictus. In ordinary poetry stress and
300natural syllabic quantity enter in as elements of the rhythm, but
are not, qua stress and quantity, essential elements of the basic
metre: in pure stress metre there is a reversal of these values;
quantity and accentual inflexion are subordinate and help to
build the rhythm, but stress alone determines the metrical basis.
305In “Rose of God” each line is composed of six stresses, and the
whole poem is built of five stanzas, each containing four such
lines; the arrangement of feet varies freely to suit the movement
of thought and feeling in each line. Thus,
* Suns may set and come again;
310For us, when once our brief light has set,
There is one perpetual night to be slept.
CATULLUS
Poems
Ro
se of | Go
|
d, | damask fo
|
320rce of | Infi
|
nity, | red i
|
con of | mi
ght,
Ro
|
se of | Po
wer | with thy di
|
am|ond ha
|
335lo | pie
|
rcing | the ni
|
ght!
340Abla
|
ze | in the wi
|
ll of | the mo
rtal, | desi
|
gn | the wo
|
350nder of | thy
pla
|
n,
I
mage of | I
|
mmor|ta
|
360lity, | outbre
|
ak of | the Go
|
dhead | in ma
n.