poets and of some later laghu guru poems, one may expect it to extend itself to whatever poetry is written with naturalness and beauty and power in this kind of metre.Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume 3
Letter ID: 796
Sri Aurobindo — Roy, Dilip Kumar
July 1936 (?)
I suppose all hinges on the distinction made by Prabodh Sen1 between the “can” and the “will”. Since the “will” has been effective in the popular appreciation of the Vaishnav poets and of some later laghu guru poems, one may expect it to extend itself to whatever poetry is written with naturalness and beauty and power in this kind of metre.
I did not read Tagore’s book but glancing over its pages my eyes fell on that extraordinary rewriting of the opening of Meghnad Badh2 and I stopped short with a gasp and a shriek. Truly, truly, but –!
1 Professor Parabodh Chandra Sen (1897-1986): An eminent Prosodist of Bengal. The first person to develop a systematic metrical theory of Bengali and one of the luminaries of the University that Tagore conceptualized in Santiniketan.
2 Meghnad Badh: by Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1824-1873). It is an epic poem in Bengali, taken from the Ramayana, on how Ravana’s son Meghanad was killed.