Chapter 9Appendixes to The Future Poetry

Appendixes The three fragmentary pieces that follow, all written at differ- ent times, are each connected in some way with the text of The Future Poetry. Appendix I is an incomplete review of James Cousins’ book New Ways in English Literature. Written in November 1917, the review was abandoned when Sri Auro- bindo decided to make his consideration of Cousins’ book the starting-point for a presentation of his own ideas on poetry. The two paragraphs of the review were rewritten as the first two paragraphs of the first chapter of The Future Poetry. Appendix II consists of a fragment found in a notebook used by Sri Aurobindo in 1920. Evidently intended for The Future Poetry, it is closely linked to the book’s last chapter, which was published in the Arya in July 1920. One might suppose that the fragment was intended to be part of the last chapter, or that it is the beginning of a new chapter that was never completed. The subject at which it hints does not seem to have been given full treatment anywhere in The Future Poetry. The paragraph printed as Appendix III was dictated by Sri Aurobindo in the later stage of his revision of the book, probably in 1950. It is all that was written of a new chapter meant to replace the first chapter of The Future Poetry.