Collected Poems - Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Note on the Texts 717
Sonnets
Sri Aurobindo wrote a total of seventy-five sonnets between 1933 and
1947. Only three of them were published in a book during his lifetime
(see above under Poems). The other seventy-two are reproduced in the
present section. See the note to “Transformation” for typographical
conventions. Sri Aurobindo wrote in 1934 that he intended his sonnets
to “be published in a separate book of sonnets”. This was done in the
book Sonnets, first published in 1980.
Three Sonnets
One of these sonnets was written around 1934, the other two in 1939.
Sri Aurobindo selected them from among his completed sonnets for
publication in the Sri Aurobindo Circle, Bombay, in 1948. They were
published under the heading “Three Sonnets”.
Man the Enigma. 17 September 1939. Three handwritten and two
typed manuscripts precede the Circle publication in 1948.
The Infinitesimal Infinite. Circa 1934. Three handwritten and four
typed manuscripts precede the Circle publication in 1948.
The Cosmic Dance. 15 September 1939. Four handwritten and two
typed manuscripts precede the Circle publication in 1948.
Sonnets from Manuscripts, circa 1934 – 1947
On 31 December 1934, Nolini Kanta Gupta wrote in a note to Sri
Aurobindo: “Sometime ago I typed Seven Sonnets — Are they not in
their final form?” Sri Aurobindo replied: “No. I have had no time
to see them — and I am still a little doubtful about their quality.” The
seven sonnets were (in the order of Nolini’s typed copies): “Contrasts”,
“Man the Thinking Animal”, “Evolution [1]”, “Evolution [2]”, “The
Call of the Impossible”, “Man the Mediator”, and “The Infinitesimal
Infinite”. Sri Aurobindo later revised most of the seven, along with an
eighth, “The Silver Call”, which is related to “The Infinitesimal Infinite”.
After further revision he published “The Infinitesimal Infinite”
as part of “Three Sonnets” in 1948 (see above).