But how charming an image does he make to arise before us! Beautiful is the description of the girl's voice as "drowsy sweet." But the most exquisite thing in the whole song is the final despairing admission that he can not describe her at all--"and thy ways, I can not tell of them"! This is one of the most beautiful expressions in any poem ancient or modern, because of its supreme truth.

What mortal ever could describe the charm of manner, voice, smile, address, in mere words?
Such things are felt, they can not be described; and the peasant boy reaches the highest height of true lyrical poetry when he cries out "I can not tell of them." The great French critic Sainte-Beuve attempted to render this line as follows--"_Quant a ta maniere, je ne puis la rendre!"_ This is very good; and you can take your choice between it and any English translation.

But good judges say that nothing in English of French equals the charm of the original.
You will find three different classes of idyls in Theocritus; the idyl which is a simple song of peasant life, a pure lyric expressing only a single emotion; the idyl which is a little story, usually a story about the gods or heroes; and lastly, the idyl which is presented in the form of a dialogue, or even of a conversation between three or four persons.

All these forms of idyl, but especially the first and the third, were afterward beautifully imitated by the Roman poets; then very imperfectly imitated by modern poets.

The imitation still goes on, but the very best English poets have never really been able to give us anything worthy of Theocritus himself.
However, this study of the Greek model has given some terms to English literature which every student ought to know.