old stems in-urn.

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