KABIWALAS 329 possessed undoubted poetic powers ; but they often neglect- ed natural sentiment and made an _ exhibition of artfulness. The founts of earlier inspiration had been failing and poetry itself coming to be regarded as the means of displaying elaborate conceits, extra- vagant fancies, bold metaphors and excessive hyperboles. Many of these poets are martyrs to verbal nicety. Fancy is preferred to sense and exuberance of imagery to chastened style. That the education of the Kabiwalas lacked in scholastic strictness produced one good effect, no doubt, namely, that whenever they turned to familiar themes or depended upon their natural genius, their poetry was marked by a sincere homeliness and a swinging and dashing lyrism rare in the precise and meditative utterances of latter-day poets; yet this very lack of training fostered in them a false and uncritical taste in the choice of poetical ornaments and a _ singular indifference to the value of artistic restraint. Their poetical style is often very diffuse and Its diffuse and in- inflated, if not trite or given to futile flated style. adorning of trivialities ; and it is very seldom that we meet with sustained flights of condensed, poignant and forcible utterance. There are very few songs which are impeccable in every line or studied in every phrase, not to speak of the obvious faults of rhyme, rhythm and metre. The extreme fluency and prolixity of the Kabiwalas stood effectually in the way of their attaining well-balanced artistic effect. The poet is very seldom able to sustain his inspiration from the beginning to the end of his composition, In the beautiful song of Nitai Bairagi already referred to' ' Satabad Prabhakar, Agrahfiyan 1, 1261, p. 7; Kedérnath Bandyo- padhyay, Gupta-ratnoddhara, p. 176; Kabioyaladiger Git, p. 61; Satgit-sar-samgraha, ii, 1047; Priti-giti, p. 828. 42
