Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/355

 KABIWALAS 331 side by side with higher flights, there are depths of bathos hardly to be paralleled. The common allurements of narrative interest, of varied subject or of striking idea are so rare in this poetry that it is necessary for the poet to screw his inspiration always te the sticking place so that he may not fail. But to reach the full white heat, the steady blaze of poetic emotion is not uniformly possible with these poets, and therefore it is not surprising to find a large amount of tolerable and even flat and insipid verse obtaining side by side with songs of intensely moving quality. Coming to the less inspired later Kabiwalas we find in them a bold use of colloquialism which is sometimes appealing, no doubt, through its veracity and raciness but which very frequently degene- rates into unlicensed slang or unredeemed verbiage. No one would seriously contend, for instance, that the following lines of Bhola Mayara, though racy and ingenious, contains a single spark of poetry. নাটুর নীচে নাড়, নড়ে লাড্ড, নয় ভাই। বন্দাবনে বসে দেখ বন্গু ঘোষের রাই ॥ ঘোম্টা খুলে চোম্টা মারে কোম্টা বড় ভারি। for ane লঙ্কা পার, হাস্ছে শুক সারি ॥ ঝাঝা মেয়ের বেটা হোলো অমাবস্যায় চাদ । আণ্টনি জবাব দাও নইলে বাঁধবে বড় ফাদ ॥ But in spite of this artistic inadequacy of Kabi-poetry, it should never be relegated to the lumber-room of literary curiosity ; nor is this poetry Ite lack of superior to be dismissed as a mere paraphrase qualities but its trne ; 5 poetic spirit, of the commonplaces of Baisnab poetry. It is true that the works of the Kabiwalas hardly exhibit any profundity, poignaney, or weight. It is not marked by supreme