Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/363

 KABIWALAS 339 versifiertion wholly by recognised systems of prosody ; yet the verse of the Kabiwalas in spite of their frequent prosodie vagaries is self-regulated, following, as it does, a law of its own which varies naturally according to the irresistible ideal or emotional or melodious suggestion. The composi- tions must be primarily regarded as songs: and in songs, variation of long and short lines is immaterial and the rigid rules of metrical arrangement incapable of uniform appli- cation. They can be better sung than read. The words and lines are arranged as they naturally sing and fall into apparently inevitable song-rhythm. But the whole effect is not inharmonious ; the music is clear and the movement of the rhymed verses of varying length is easy and natural. The spirit of this verse-system is that of unbound- ed lawlessness bound only by a law of its own; that of resistance to the established ideal of 77 stereo-typed verses like payar or steréotyped versitica- /7/pad7 which possess a more or less tion and its infinite : : variety and versatility. fixed system of letters or pauses. In this, again, Kabi-poets are following in the footsteps of their Baisnab predecessors, though with a great deal more of unhampered freedom. Whatever may be the defects, the system gives us, however, variety of arrangement, versatility of combination, and_ infinite suggestion of new verse-forms. But in general structure of the songs, the Kabiwalas followed a more or less definite system of rhyme-arrange- ment. The exact signification of much of their musical technicalities is lost to us but for our The general struc- ইন ture and rhyme- purpose it is not indeed necessary to রহ of Kabi- enter into details. It would be enough to state that the whole musical gamut of each song is arranged in ascending and descending order
 * into several divisions, bound to each other by a peculiar