A very modern thought which calls to mind Theodore Storm's touching lines after the death of his wife:
But this I cannot endure, that the sun smiles as before, clocks strike and bells ring as in thy lifetime, and day and night still follow each other.
He connects spring with love:
When grass grows green and fresh leaves spring
And flowers are budding on the plain,
When nightingales so sweetly sing
And through the greenwood swells the strain,
Then joy I in the song and in the flower,
Joy in myself but in my lady more;
All objects round my spirit turns to joy,