d Gawan

Found a door open into a garden; he stept in to look round and
enjoy the air and the singing of the birds.

So we see that in the _Nibelungenlied_ scarcely a plant grew, and
Hartmann and Wolfram's gardens belonged almost entirely to an unreal
region; there are no traces of a very deep feeling for Nature in all
this.

But Gottfried von Strassburg, with his vivid, sensuous imagination
and keen eye for beauty, shewed a distinct advance both in taste and
achievement. He, too, notes time briefly: 'And as it drew towards
evening,' 'Now day had broke.' He repeats his comparisons: fair
ladies are 'the wonder rose of May,' 'the longing white rose.' The
two Isolts are sun and dawn. Brangaene is the full moon. The terrified
girl is thus described:

Her rosy mouth paled; the fair colour, which was her ornament,
died out of her skin; her bright eyes grew dim like night after
day.

Another comparison is:

Like the siren's song, drawing a bark to the reef as by a magnet,
so the sweet young queen attracted many hearts.

Love is a usurious plant, whose sun never goes down; a romance
sweetens the mood as May dew sweetens the blood.

Constant friendship is one which takes the pleasure with the pain,
the thorn with the rose. The last comparisons shew more thought, and
still more is seen in the beginning of the poem, _Riwalin and
Blancheflur_, which has a charming description of Spring.

Now the festival was agreed upon and arranged
For the four flowering weeks
When sweet May attracts, till he flies off again.
At Tinkapol upon a green plain
High up on a wonderful meadow with spring colour
Such as no eye has seen before or since. Soft sweet May
Had dressed it with his own charming extravagance.
There were little wood birds, a joy to the ear,
Flowers and grass and green plants and summer meads
That were a delight to eye and heart.
One found there whatever one would, whatever May should bring--
Shade from the sun, limes by the brook,
A gentle breeze which brought the prattle
Of Mark's court people. May's friend, the green turf,
Had made herself a charming costume of flowers,
In which she shone back at the guests with a festival of her own;
The blossoming trees smiled so sweetly at every one,
That heart and mind smiled back again.
The pure notes of the birds, blessed and beautiful,
Touched heart and senses, filling hill and dale with joy.
The dear n