He too, who fain would live in purity, Feels nature treacherous, hears examples urge, As one who, falling overboard at sea, Beats with his arms and feet the buoyant surge, And climbs at length against some rocky brink, Only beneath exhausted strength to sink. My cheek bedewed with holy tears in vain, To love and heaven I vowed a spotless truth: Too soon the noble tear exhaled again, Example conquered, and the glow of youth To live as live one's comrades seems allowed; He who would be a man, must quit the crowd. He, too, wrote with hymn-like swing in praise of the Creator: 'Great is the Lord! the unnumbered heavens are the chambers of his fortress, storm and thunder-clouds his chariot.' The most famous of his poems, and the one most admired in his own day, was _Spring_. This is full of love for Nature. It describes a country walk after the muggy air of town, and conveys a vivid impression of fresh germinating spring, though it is overlaid by monotonous detail: Receive me, hallowed shades! Ye dwellings of sweet buss! Umbrageous arches full of sleeping dark delights ... Receive me! Fill my soul with longing and with rest ... And you, ye laughing fields, Valleys of roses, labyrinths of streams, I will inhale an ecstasy with your balsamic breath, And, lying in the shade, on strings of gold Sing your indwelling joys.... On rosy clouds, with rose and tulip crowned, Spring has come down from heaven.... The air grew softer, fields took varied hues, The shades were leafy, and soft notes awoke And flew and warbled round the wood in twilight greenery. Brooks took a silver tint, sweet odours filled the air, The early shepherd's pipe was heard by Echo in the dale.... Most dear abode! Ah, were I but allowed Down in the shade by yon loquacious brook Henceforth to live! O sky! thou sea of love, Eternal spring of health, will not thy waters succour me? Must, my life's blossom wither, stifled by the weeds? Johann Peter Uz, who was undervalued because of his sickly style, wrote many little songs full of feeling for Nature, though within narrow limits. Their titles shew the pastoral taste[4]:--_Spring_, _Morning, Shepherd's Morning Song, The Muse with the Shepherds, The Meadow in the Country, Vintage, Evening, May, The Rose, Summer and Wine, Winter Night, Longing for Spring_, etc. Many are fresh and full of warm feeling, especially the Spring Songs: See the blossoming of Spring! Will't not taste the joys it showers? Dost not feel its impulse thrill? Friends! away our cares we'll fling! In the joyous time of flowers, Love and Bacchus have their will. and O forest, O green shady paths, Dear place of spring's display! My good luck from the thronging town Has brought me here away. O what a fresh breeze flows Down from the wooded hill, How pleasantly the west wind flies With rustling dewy wing Across the vale, Where all is green and blossoming.