Collected Poems - Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Metrical Experiments 653
On the grey street
On the grey street and the lagging winding waters
One sees far off stealing away to meet the rich drooping purple
of the sky
A stillness falls, — a supernatural silence
Lies on the lap of Nature.
The street man’s life, and the waters earth’s sky-dowry,
And this rich span’s unreal splendour, symbol hue, sign to sight
of the Unseen;
Man’s life lies mute, the waters run to the splendour;
The Unseen is this mighty Silence.
Cry of the ocean’s surges
Cry of the ocean’s surges, the long hexameter rolling
Covers my spirit as tides roll over rapturous shores.
Foam on its tops the pentameter curls to its cadenced closing,
Two high waves, then a hush swoons on the ear in its fall.