Talks on Poetry

Publishers' Introduction

Talking on poetry is best done if the talker is not only a critic but also a poet. It is with an eye to this double role that Amal Kiran (as Sri Aurobindo had renamed K. D. Sethna, giving the new designation's meaning as "The Clear Ray") was appointed lecturer in poetry soon after the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education had been founded.

The class he took twice a week was from the beginning an unusual one. He had told the Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, who had appointed him, that he would follow no set method but teach according to his inspiration. The Mother at once said: "Then I shall be with you." And she must have been with him, for he taught for nearly two years without opening a single book in the classroom or consulting any notes. Practically no record remains of the work done in that period. But luckily the later talks, which too were mostly delivered without any helpful accessories, are available. They constitute two series. One is a specialised study: "Classical" and "Romantic" — An Approach through Sri Aurobindo. The other has a more general bearing. And it is the talks in this preliminary series that we are now presenting in book-form.

They were given to a group of students starting their University career. They appeared in print for the first time in the monthly review of culture published from the Ashram, Mother India, whose editor was himself the deliverer of the talks. They were prepared for publication from jottings and memory — with a few exceptions. In some places they were expanded a little to make the matter more complete. One talk has been partly redone because of the light thrown on the theme by a letter of Sri Aurobindo's which came to hand at a later time. The last talk of the series was never delivered, as the year ended before the day fixed for it. It was to be written out according to the plan originally in view.

In the talks that appeared in Mother India, not only were the actual turns of phrase used in the class recovered as far as possible; at the request of the students, even the digressions were sought to be preserved. The talks make, in this form, somewhat unconventional pieces, but the aim has been to retain, in addition to their touch of literature and serious thought, their touch of life and laughter.

Apropos of the latter touch it may be of interest to mention that Amal Kiran's class was the sole one in the educational Centre that kept "open house". He had asked the Mother to let him admit anyone who wanted to attend it. The rule of consulting her or, at a lesser level, the head of the Centre was to be bypassed. Complete freedom was given to the lecturer as if his class had been an autonomous unit. Visiting professors dropped in, students from other classes came whenever possible, adult Ashramites found chances to attend. Each lecture was practically self-contained. And there was an informality in all the proceedings. At one time there was even a threat by the authorities to put up a notice that Amal Kiran's students should not laugh so much since other classes were disturbed by being tempted to stop their own work and join the high jinks that seemed to be going on there.

Considering the demand by Amal Kiran's fellow-professors for the talks in book-form, we may be sure that the high jinks were quite instructive. Asked to state in brief the general drift of his teaching, the lecturer has provided us with the following note:

"The talks were meant to encourage an approach to poetry with a sensitive wide-ranging zest and a look at it as at a breathing and moving organism. Not that its technical minutiae are to be slurred over; great precision must be brought to them, but they must be dealt with as if the postures and gestures of rhythmic expression were vital elements of what a Wordsworth would call 'the growth of the poet's mind'. In all poetic creation there is the heart and there is the art. The latter reveals the self-discovering develop-ment of the former. To neglect either is to miss the true organicity of a poem. To study a poem rightly we must let a happy excitement of detailed scrutiny play at once over its core of significance and its outspread of suggestive sound. Finally, the adventure of measured speech that has sprung from the depths of the poet cannot be said to find its fulfilment in the reader unless it becomes for him a permanent mode of finer living."

It has been thought fitting to append to the present collection a number of talks on poetry given in a later period to a general audience or to a different set of students.

The publishers wish to thank the Government of India for generously bearing the cost of bringing out this book which, they hope, will serve poetry-lovers as both an educative compendium and a boon companion.