Sri Aurobindo
A tree beside the sandy rive-beach
Holds up its topmost boughs
Like fingers towards the skies they cannot reach,
Earth-bound, heaven-amorous.
This is the soul of man, body and brain,
Hungry for earth our heavenly flight detain.
Discussion : This short poem containing a quatrain and a couplet brings about a fine metaphor as we find in it an implicit comparison between a tree and the human soul. The tree mentioned here holds up its topmost boughs towards the sky i.e. towards the heaven. The tree is fixed on the earth and it is not possible for it to touch the sky, though it intends to do so.The same picture , same situation is implied
in the activities of human beings who, holding up the fingers try to have the experience of heaven.
Human beings are in the contradictory situation and they are 'earth-bound' and at the same time 'heaven-amorous'. Human being is so absorbed with the gross earthly matters that pull him backwards like a magnet when his soul intends to undertake a flight towards heaven.
