Collected Poems - Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Note on the Texts 707
The Mahatmas. 1910. This poem was intended for the third issue of
the Karmayogin to be printed from the manuscript described in the
above note. In the manuscript, the poem is entitled “The Mahatmas:
Kutthumi”. A corrupt version was printed under the title “The Mahatma
Kuthumi” in the Standard Bearer on 12 and 26 December 1920.
This version was revised by Sri Aurobindo for inclusion in Collected
Poems and Plays in 1942. The present version is based on the original
manuscript.
PART FIVE: PONDICHERRY, CIRCA 1910 – 1920
Sri Aurobindo came to Pondicherry in 1910 and remained there until
his passing in 1950. During this period he published four collections
of short poems as well as Collected Poems and Plays (1942). He also
published a number of short poems in journals, and wrote scores of
poems, long and short, that were not brought out until after his passing.
Two Poems in Quantitative Hexameters
Ilion. Sri Aurobindo began work on this epic in quantitative hexameters
in 1908 or 1909. The earliest surviving manuscript lines of the
poem — then entitled “The Fall of Troy: An Epic” — were dated by the
author as follows: “Commenced in jail, 1909, resumed and completed
in Pondicherry, April and May 1910.” Between then and 1914, he
worked steadily on this “completed” poem, transforming it from a
brief narrative into an epic made up of several books. During the first
stage of this enlargement, between April 1910 and March 1913, he
produced almost a dozen drafts of the first book and a smaller number
of drafts of the second. In March 1913, a sudden fluency permitted
him to complete and revise a version of the epic extending up to
the end of what is now Book VIII. He wrote the fragmentary ninth
book (untitled and not actually headed “Book IX” in the manuscript)
in 1914. Probably before then, he copied out the first eight books
into notebooks that bear the title Ilion. Subsequently he revised and
recopied the completed books, or passages from them, several times.
This work continued until around 1917. It would appear that two