Man the Thinking Animal

A poem by Sri Aurobindo


Man the Thinking Animal

A trifling unit in a boundless plan
    Amidst the enormous insignificance
    Of the unpeopled cosmos' fire-whirl dance,
Earth, as by accident, engendered man,

A creature of his own grey ignorance,
    A mind half shadow and half gleam, a breath
    That wrestles, captive in a world of death,
To live some lame brief years. Yet his advance,

Attempt of a divinity within,
    A consciousness in the inconscient Night,
    To realise its own supernal Light,
Confronts the ruthless forces of the Unseen.

Aspiring to godhead from insensible clay
He travels slow-footed towards the eternal day.



Part VII : Pondicherry (Circa 1927-1947) > Sonnets from Manuscripts (Circa 1934-1947)   




How to read the color-coded changes below? 1. SABCL version : lines with any changes & specific changes 2. CWSA version : lines with any changes & specific changes

Sri-Aurobindo/books/collected-poems/man-the-thinking-animal.txt CHANGED
@@ -1,15 +1,15 @@
1
- Man, the Thinking Animal
1
+ Man the Thinking Animal
2
2
  A trifling unit in a boundless plan
3
3
  Amidst the enormous insignificance
4
4
  Of the unpeopled cosmos' fire-whirl dance,
5
- Earth, as by accident, engendered man:
5
+ Earth, as by accident, engendered man,
6
6
  A creature of his own grey ignorance,
7
- A mind half-shadow and half-gleam, a breath
7
+ A mind half shadow and half gleam, a breath
8
8
  That wrestles, captive in a world of death,
9
9
  To live some lame brief years. Yet his advance,
10
10
  Attempt of a divinity within,
11
11
  A consciousness in the inconscient Night,
12
- To realise its own supernal Light
12
+ To realise its own supernal Light,
13
13
  Confronts the ruthless forces of the Unseen.
14
14
  Aspiring to godhead from insensible clay
15
15
  He travels slow-footed towards the eternal day.

NOTES FROM EDITOR

Circa 1934. Five handwritten manuscripts and one typed manuscript, the earliest contemporaneous with close-to-final drafts of “Transformation” and “The Other Earths”.



Manuscript