THE TIGER AND THE DEER

 - Sri Aurobindo

Sri Aurobindo is one of the supreme masters in Indian English Literature. His poetry may be divided into two broad groups, i.e., poetry of action and poetry of meditation. He is not only a poet but also a philosopher, short story writer and dramatist. He gives charming descriptions of nature in his writings. Savitri is the epic written by Aurobindo. It marks the culmination of his poetic career.

Aurobindo's short poem 'The Tiger and the Deer' is a didactic poem. It is a contrast between good and evil, innocence and experience, and life and death.

The poem begins with a description of the tiger. The tiger crouches and slouches brilliantly though the green forest. It has gleaming eyes, mighty chest and soft soundless paws.

"Brilliant, crouching, slouching, what crept

 through the green heart of the forest,

 Gleaming eyes and mighty chest and soft

 soundless paws of grandeur or murder?"

Generally, people are afraid of the tiger. They hate it because it is rough and dangerous. In the poem, the world of tiger stands for death, darkness and arrogance.

The innocent deer drinks water from the great pool in the forest. It is unaware of the tiger's plan of attack. The tiger crouches slowly to attack the deer:

“...... the great beast crouched and crept, and crept

and crouched a last time, noiseless, fatal".

Then the fierce tiger  has leaped up over the deer and torn it to pieces. The deer died pathetically thinking about its mate.

 "Destroyed, the mild harmless beauty by

  the strong cruel beauty in Nature"

The deer in the poem suggests innocence, softness and love. The killing of the deer by the tiger suggests the death and destruction of healthy values of life by the cruelty of modern civilization.

The poet closes the poem with a note of optimism. He says that in spite of the various blows of death and darkness, life is a thing to be enjoyed. Sufferings are not eternal. He teaches the lesson that those who harm others will be destroyed like the mammoth. The mammoth shook the plains of Asia once upon a time. But it is extinct now. Since the tiger kills and harms other animals, the same fate of mammoth would come to it. But then the deer would drink without any fear in the cool ponds of the forest. The poet beautifully tells,

"The mighty perish in their might The slam survive the slayer".

Thus, the poem expresses the poet's longing for a peaceful and harmless world.