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Death wanders through our lives at will, sweet Death
Is busy with each intake of our breath.
Why do you fear her? Lo, her laughing face
All rosy with the light of jocund grace !
A kind and lovely maiden culling flowers
In a sweet garden fresh with vernal showers,
This is the thing you fear, young portress bright
Who opens to our souls the worlds of light.
Is it because the twisted stem must feel
Pain when the tenderest hands its glory steal?
Is it because the flowerless stalk droops dull
And ghastly now that was so beautiful ?
Or is it the opening portal’s horrid jar
That shakes you, feeble souls of courage bare?
Death is but changing of our robes to wait
In wedding garments at the Eternal’s gate.

The poem by Sri Aurobindo explores the issue of death and questions the common fear that is connected to it. The poet personifies death as a kind and compassionate energy, calling it “sweet Death,” who freely flows through our lives and is inextricably linked to each breath we take. The description of death as a “kind and lovely maiden culling flowers” in a garden full of colour and vibrancy alludes to a healthy and normal part of the life cycle.

The irony that this dreaded person, symbolised as a youthful gatekeeper or “portress bright,” being the one who opens doors to realms full of light and spirituality is one of Aurobindo’s issues regarding the rationale for dreading death. The poem asks the reader to speculate as to whether physical changes—like the fading of a flower’s brilliance and the withering of its stem—are the cause of fear of death. The idea of a “twisted stem” experiencing pain could represent the anguish the human body experiences as it approaches death.

The poetry emphasises that death need not be feared despite the physical changes. Rather, it is presented as an essential and transforming event, akin to donning new robes before an even greater, everlasting celebration. Putting on “wedding garments at the Eternal’s gate” is a metaphor that alludes to a happy passage into a spiritual world or a higher plane of life.

Ultimately, Sri Aurobindo’s poem promotes a change in thinking on death, asking readers to see it as a normal and necessary stage of life that leads to a richer and happier existence outside of the body.