But, when they sing, in gentle whisper dies;
By turns they sink, by turns their music raise
And blend, with equal skill, harmonious lays.
But even here the scene is surrounded by an imaginary atmosphere; flowers, fruit, creatures, and atmosphere all lie under a magic charm. Tasso's importance for our subject lies far more in his much-imitated pastorals.
The Arcadia of Jacopo Sannazaro, which appeared in 1504, a work of poetic beauty and still greater literary importance,[[11]] paved the way for pastoral poetry, which, like the sonnet, was interwoven with prose. The shepherd's occupations are described with care, though many of the songs and terms of expression rather fit the man of culture than the child of Nature, and he had that genuine enthusiasm for the rural which begets a convincing eloquence. 'Tis you,' he says at the end, addressing the Muse, 'who first woke the sleeping woods, and taught the shepherds how to strike up their lost songs.'
Bembo wrote this inscription for his grave:
Strew flowers o'er the sacred ashes, here lies Sannazaro;
With thee, gentle Virgil, he shares Muse and grave.
Virgil too was industriously imitated in the didactic poetry of his country.
Giovanni Rucellai (born 1475) wrote a didactic poem, The Bees, which begins: