a word from
thee. A whole world now lies betwixt those who loved each other
and who of old were never separate. If others, for pity alone,
cross the Alps to seek their lost slaves, wherefore am I
forgotten?--I who am bound to thee by blood? Where art thou? I
ask the wind as it sighs, the clouds as they pass--at least some
bird might bring me news of thee. If the holy enclosure of this
monastery did not restrain me, thou shouldst see me suddenly
appear beside thee. I could cross the stormy seas in winter if it
were necessary. The tempest that alarms the sailors should cause
no fear to me who love thee. If my vessel were dashed to pieces
by the tempest, I should cling to a plank to reach thee, and if I
could find nothing to cling to, I should go to thee swimming,
exhausted. If I could but see thee once more, I should deny all
the perils of the journey....

There is little about Nature in this beautiful avowal of love and
longing, but the whole colouring of the mood forms a background of
feeling for his longer descriptions. His very long and tedious poem
about the bridal journey of Gelesiuntha, the Spanish princess, who
married King Chilperic, shews deep and touching feeling in parts. She
left her Toledo home with a heavy heart, crossing the Pyrenees, where
'the mountains shining with snow reach to the stars, and their sharp
peaks project over the rain clouds.' In the same vein as Ausonius,
when he urged Paulinus to write to him, she begs her sister for news:

By thy name full oft I call thee, Gelesiuntha, sister mine: with
this name fountains, woods, rivers, and fields resound. Art thou
silent, Gelesiuntha? Answer as to thy sister stones and
mountains, groves and waters and sky, answer in language mute.

In troubled thought and care she asked the very breezes, but of her
sister's safety all were silent.

Fortunatus, like Ausonius, not only looked at Nature with sympathy,
but was a master in description of scenery. His lengthy descriptions
of spring are mostly only decorative work, but here and there we find
a really poetic idea. For example:

At the first spring, when earth has doffed her frost,
the field is clothed with variegated grass; the mountains
stretch their leafy heads towards the sky, the
shady tree renews its verdant foliage, the lovely vine
is swelling with budding branches, giving promise that
a weight of grapes shall hang from its