LANDSCAPE 279 



The German lyrics of the Minnesingers, the Proven9al 

 lyrics of the Troubadours, the Celtic romances of Arthur and 

 his Knights, when these touch nature, are in like manner 

 vernal. The magic of the May pervades them ; the mystery 

 of the woodland enfolds them. They are the utterances of 

 generations for whom life has revived, who have escaped the 

 winter of their discontent and bondage, to whom the world 

 is once more full of wonder-breeding interest. 



Humanity, as is natural, engages the poet's first attention. 

 The earth is felt chiefly through the delightfulness of healthy 

 sensations. The stars, and clouds, and tempests of the heavens, 

 the ever-recurring miracle of sunrise, the solemn pageant of 

 sunsetting, are almost as though they were not in this 

 literature. A copse in April, a blooming garden, a grove 

 where birds sing, a storm-swept sea-beach these are the 

 .landscape pictures of that epoch. But gods and goddesses 

 are absent ; the flowers are flowers, not Crocus or Adonis ; 

 the birds are birds, not Philomela wailing for her ancient 

 wrong ; the oaks contain no Hamadryads, and the fountains 

 murmur without Nymphs. Nature, though as yet a mere 

 back-scene to humanity, has emerged as Nature. 



At last comes Dante, with his keen incisive touch on 

 natural things, his intense laconic descriptions of the world as 

 it appears : 1 



Dolce color d' oriental zaffiro. 



Conobbi il tremolar della marina. 



A noi venia la creatura bella 



Bianco vestita e nella faccia quale 

 Par tremolando la mattutina stella. 



1 Soft colour of oriental sapphire I saw and knew the light atremble 

 on the sea-marge. Toward us came the beauteous being, clothed in 

 white and with a countenance that was as is the dawn-star when it 

 trembles. Like to a lark which circles free in air, singing at first, and 

 then keeps silence, satisfied with the last sweetness of the note that fills 

 her soul. In semblance of a lion when he couches. We walked on 

 through the evening, gazing intently forward so far as eyes could reach, 

 with faces turned to meet the last and lucent rays of daylight. 



