Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/394

 370 BENGALI LITERATURE there are some fine pieces which one should not capriciously ignore,' his songs on sakhi-sainvbad General characteris. 27¢ marked by an artificiality of tone, ties of his songs es- by a considerable display of cheap pecially of his songs, 3 : = on sakhi-sambad. ingenuity and sometimes by a vulga- rity of tone and sentiment which very often mars his beautiful passages. We have quoted already one song of this type while illustrating the feebleness and inadequacy of Kabi-songs in reproducing the spirit and grace of earlier poetry. Ram Basu is often regarded as the greatest poet of this group: but he is at the same time the most unequal poet. Indeed the songs of Ram Basu, in spite of their charm and appeal, illustrate very aptly the utmost capacity as well as the utmost limitation of Kabi-poetry in all its aspects. The merits and defects of these songs are alike very great. As on the one hand, we have, in some of them, considerable simplicity of style, directness of expression, vigorous use of the vernacular idiom, tenderness and human interest, so on the other, we have the almost cloying display of verbal or alliterative dexterity, the conscious elaboration of trivial themes or trite sentiment, the comparatively uninspired use of ornaments and conceits—the bane of a long-standing literary tradition —and a false and affected taste for the jingle of weakly and inharmonious phrases. Coming, as it does, at the end of this flourishing period of Kabi-poetry, Ram Basu’s song at once represents the maturity as well as the decline of that species. Taking in the first instance, his songs on sakhi-samnbid in which we find all these merits and defects amply set forth. Wecannot but admit their inferiority in tone, sentiment and expression as seen in lines like the following. 1 §ee for instance his song aq করে মান রাখতে পারিনে ০৮ বসস্তেরে স্ুধাও সখি ০০,