Page:The Renaissance In India.djvu/72

 India is great by the unity of her na- tional coupled with the rich dirersity of her regional mind. That we may ex- pect to see reflected in the resurgence of her artistic creativeness. Poetry and literature in Bengal have gone through two distinct stages and seem to be preparing for a third of which one cannot quite foresee the character. It be- gan with a European and mostly an Eng- lish influence, a taking in of fresh poetical and prose forms, literary ideas, artistic canons. It was a period of copious and buoyant creation which produced a num- ber of poets and poetesses, one or two of great genius, others of a fine poetic capa- city, much work of beauty and dis- tinction, a real opening of the flood- gates of Saraswati. Its work was not at all crudely imitative ; the foreign influ- ences are everywhere visible ; but they are assimilated, not merely obeyed or aped. The quality of the Bengali temper- ament and its native aesthetic turn took