Christ and His Mother

This simple yet subtle lyric is a striking example of the religious use of the genre known as the reverdie, the song inspired by the return of spring (see Spring, p. 210, above). Its first and last stanzas are derived ultimately from an earlier religious lyric, “Nu this fules singet hand maket hüre blis” (ca. 1250); but in their total poetic effect its five restrained stanzas outshine the twelve stanzas of its prototype.