Trenchantly true as the inspiration of a popular lyric may be,
inevitable as may be the justice of its sentiment, unerring as may be
its touch upon reality, still it lacks the note which marks it out for
one man's utterance among a thousand. Composing it, the one has made
himself the mouthpiece of the thousand. What the _Volkslied_ gains in
universality it loses in individuality of character. Its applicability
to human nature at large is obtained at the sacrifice of that
interest which belongs to special circumstances. It suits every one
who grieves or loves or triumphs. It does not indicate the love, the
grief, the triumph of this man and no other. It possesses the pathos
and the beauty of countless human lives prolonged through inarticulate
generations, finding utterance at last in it. It is deficient in that
particular intonation which makes a Shelley's voice differ from a
Leopardi's, Petrarch's sonnets for Laura differ from Sidney's sonnets
for Stella. It has always less of perceptible artistic effect, more
enduring human quality. Some few of its lines are so well found, so
rightly said, that they possess the certainty of natural things--a
quality rare in the works of all but the greatest known poets. But
these phrases with the accent of truest truth are often embedded in
mere generalities and repetitions.

These characteristics of popular poetry help to explain the frequent
recurrence of the same ideas, the same expressions, the same stanzas
even, in the lyrics of the Goliardi. A _Volkslied_, once created,
becomes common property. It flies abroad like thistledown; settles and
sows its seed; is maimed and mutilated; is improved or altered for the
worse; is curtailed, expanded, adapted to divers purposes at different
times and in very different relations.