All in the merrye month of May, When greene buds they were swellin;[430] And wee’ll away to the greene forest;[431] Gil Morice sate in gude grene wode, He whistled and he sang;[432] In summer time when leaves grow greene And blossoms bedecke the tree;[433] To the greene forest so pleasant and faire;[434] He myght have dwelt in grene foreste, Under the shadowes greene;[435] The woodweele sang, and wold not cease Sitting upon the spraye, Soe lowde, he wakened Robin Hood In the greenwood where he lay;[436] are typical forest pictures.[437] But the gude green wood is not always fresh and blooming, as we see from occasional lines such as Now loud and shrill blew the westlin’ wind, Sair beat the heavy shower;[438] About Yule quhen the wind blew cule;[439] Oft have I ridden thro’ Stirling town In the wind both and the weit;[440] No shimmering sun here ever shone; No halesome breeze here ever blew;[441] Trees are not often mentioned individually except the oak and the willow, the latter always representing sorrow. There is occasional use of Nature in simple comparisons, as, “White as evir the snaw lay on the dike,” “drye as a clot of claye,” “light of foot as stag that runs in forest wild,” his “een like gray gosehawk’s stair’d wyld.” There are also some homely pictures of everyday country life, as in “Take Thy Old Cloak about Thee,” “Plain Truth and Blind Ignorance” (Somersetshire dialect), “The Ew-Bughts Marion,” and “The Auld Good Man.” The use of Nature in the “Ballads,” slight and limited as it is, gives an impression of vivid reality. It is what Schiller would call the simple as opposed to the sentimental love of Nature, the first being characteristic of early races who _are_ Nature, and the last of the moderns who _seek_ Nature.[442] On eighteenth-century readers who, as a class, knew little about the external world outside their parks and gardens, the effect of the descriptive touches in the “Ballads” would be to lead them into lovely regions where Nature was as spontaneous and free as the knights and fair ladies themselves. Michael Bruce imitated Milton’s “Lycidas” in an elegy called “Daphnis” and imitated Gray in some “Runic Odes,” which were lauded as “truly Runic and truly Grayan.” In these poems the use of Nature is slight and conventional. His “Lochleven” (1766) is more significant. In this poem he celebrates The pastoral mountains, the poetic streams of his native land. He finds all Nature full of joy. The vales, the vocal hills, The woods, the waters, and the heart of man Send out a general song; ’tis beauty all To poet’s eye and music to his ear.