Overhead Poetry

Gulfs of Night

From hills inaureoled by a twilight trance,

Arms eager with the enchanted cry of love

Strain towards a mountain lost in timeless dawn.

But how shall arms of reverie clasp that fire

When gulfs of nameless night—a dragon's mouth—

Have stretched below their blinded centuries?...

O paradise-haunted pilgrims of the dusk,

Nothing save fall can bare the soul's rich deep.

To the emperor height take tributary hands

Full of wide wounds like rubies proud and warm,

Cut from life's inmost core of mystery.

No rapture—till you appease with diamond tears

Truth's spirit throne of dross-consuming gold.

Sri Aurobindo's Comment

"There is something mental in the turn—which makes it sound like an overhead inspiration coming through the mind, rather than direct. At the same time the first five lines, 7 and 11 also, have a more direct overhead ring."

"It expresses its idea with great richness and force and images that carry one beyond the mental vision of things—that seems to me its main quality."

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