Poetry and Poetics of Walt Whitman and Sri Aurobindo

Contents: Preface. Introduction. 1. Whitman and Sri Aurobindo: cultural backdrop. 2. Poetics of yesterday and the future. 3. On the borderline and beyond. 4. Mystic and spiritual: two planes of poetry. 5. Poetic technique: two inspired versifiers. 6. Leaves of grass and Savitri: a legend and a symbol. Conclusion. Bibliography. The greatness of Walt Whitman was not a new discovery in 1917, when Sri Aurobindo began writing The future Poetry focusing on an old Sanskrit art virtually lost with the passing away of the Upanishadic poets. But then, Sri Aurobindo turned to Whitman with a specific purpose, with a deliberate wish to highlight a glory that was to become a new direction towards the poetry of the future. This pioneering study seeks to explain the poetry and poetics of Walt Whitman and Sri Aurobindo with the help of Sri Aurobindo's perspective and with a view to linking the two poets as the pioneers of a new kind of poetry, which does not have much of a tradition in the English language.