Dutt, Romesh Chunder: The literature of Bengal: being an attempt to trace the progress of the national mind in its various aspects, as reflected in the nation’s literature from the earliest times to the present day ; with copious extracts from the best writers (Calcutta, 1877)

BIDYAPATI THAKUR AND CHANDIDAS THAKUR. 55

describes the first troubled impressions of love in ihe
heart of Krishna, on seeing a vision of beauty, as it were,
in Radha.

• Friend ! 'twas a hurried view ! '

A cloud-wrapped lightning sent a dart

Upon my troubled heart !

Scarce half removed was her veil,

Played on her lips scarce half a smile,

'From half* her eye a glance she shed,

And half her bosom was displayed,

' ' And half was hid in veil,

I gazed »nd felt my senses reel!
* * * *

,Her pearly teeth were sweetly set ^jfcS
Her ruby lips upon,
, And soft and sweet she spoke,—I gazed,—

Insatiate gazed again !

Our readers must be struck with the art and the
graces of the poet, the similes 'and figures 'with which
the small poem is so beautifully enjoellished, we had
almost said, so thickly crowded. In this Bidyapati is in,
his own element. Nature and her vast ftorks are spread
before him, Art displays before him her untold trea-
sures, and Bidyapati, in the wide range of his imagina-
tion, expatiates fror£>flower to flower, from the flowers
of Nature to the flowers of Art, gathers honey, and pours
it into the ear of the ravished reader. Not so Chandidas.
He has neither the power nor the inclination to rove
about. He feels deeply, and sings feelingly. We shall
quote from his poems a converse passage, i. e., where
Radha is suddenly struck and entranced at hearing the
very name of Krishna.*