Sanskrit poetry is both metrical and rhythmical, equally free from the
confused strains of unmoulded genius and from the servile pedantry of
conventional rules. The verse of eight syllables is the source of all
other metres, and the _sloka_ or double distich is the stanza most
frequently used. Though this poetry presents too often extravagance of
ideas, incumbrance of episodes, and monstrosity of images, as a general
rule it is endowed with simplicity of style, pure coloring, sublime ideas,
rare figures, and chaste epithets. Its exuberance must be attributed to
the strange mythology of the Hindus, to the immensity of the fables which
constitute the groundwork of their poems, and to the gigantic strength of
their poetical imaginations. A striking peculiarity of Sanskrit poetry is
its extensive use in treating of those subjects apparently the most
difficult to reduce to a metrical form--not only the Vedas and Manu's code
are composed in verse, but the sciences are expressed in this form. Even
in the few works which may be called prose, the style is so modulated and
bears so great a resemblance to the language of poetry as scarcely to be
distinguished from it.
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