Along the water sings the snow-white swan,
While from the branch respondeth Philomel....
Here, in its bill, to the dear nest, with care,
The rapid little bird the food doth bear.
Subjective feeling for Nature is better displayed in the lyric than the epic.
The Spaniard, Fray Luis de Leon, was a typical example of a sixteenth-century lyrist; full of mild enthusiasm for Nature, the theosophico-mystical attitude of the Catholic.
A most fervid feeling for Nature from the religious side breathed in St Francis of Assisi--the feeling which inspired his hymn to Brother Sun (Cantico del Sole), and led his brother Egidio, intoxicated with love to his Creator, to kiss trees and rocks and weep over them[[12]]:
Praised by His creatures all,
Praised be the Lord my God
By Messer Sun, my brother above all,