orace has several charming descriptions of the sights and sounds of spring; but they suggest to him merely that life is short, or that he is thirsty, and in either case he cannot do better than have another drink in company with a friend. So with Homer and Virgil. External nature and its beauty are often touched off in two or three lines which, once read, are never forgotten; but it is always as ornament to a picture, not auxiliary to the expression of a mood. You may search classical literature in vain for such passages as Walther von der Vogelweide's:--
"Dô der sumer komen was Und die bluomen durch daz gras Wünneclîche ensprungen, Ald[=a] die vogele sungen, Dâr kom ich gegangen An einer anger langen, Dâ ein lûter brunne entspranc; Vor dem walde was s[=i]n ganc, Dâ diu nahtegale sanc;"[5]
or the unknown Frenchman's:--
"Ce fu el tans d'esté, el mois de mai, que li jor sont caut, lonc, et cler, et les nuits coies et series. Nicolete jut une n
