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Letters on Poetry and Art
CONTENTS
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Remarks on Bengali Usage
Laws and Caprices of Usage
It is not very clear why the dictum about
26 January 1932 *
Funny thing ―this word-coinage! Sometimes people accept it, sometimes they reject.
After all when one coins a new word, one has to take the chance. If the word is properly formed and not ugly or unintelligible, it seems to me all right to venture.
If it is not accepted it will remain a blot in the poem. Tagore
coined the word
Why a blot? There are many words in Greek poetry which occur only once in the whole literature, but that is not considered a defect in the poem. It is called a hapax legomenon, "a once
Page-656
spoken word" and that's all.
16 January 1937
A Language Grows and Is Not Made
Will it be a narrowness on the part of the Calcutta University if it does not include foreign words for the enrichment of Bengali literature?
It is a matter of opinion and tastes differ. But I don't see how a University can change the language. A language grows and is not made, except in so far as it is the great poets and prose writers who make it. 15 July 1937
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should not apply
to
and
. My own feeling is against this extra syllable in such words
(
seems to me different, because 
but he laments that people have not
accepted it.
for instance is a fine word and can adorn, not blot Tagore's poetry even if no one else uses it. I think Shakespeare has many words coined by him or at least
some that do not occur elsewhere.