SOURCE: Jackson, W. T. H. “The Medieval Lyric.” In The Literature of the Middle Ages, pp. 262-73. New York: Columbia University Press, 1960.

In the following excerpt, Jackson cites Walther's use of humor and parody in his love lyrics and commends him for maintaining earnest goals in his political poetry.

It is worth noting that, in the best poets of the Minnesang, the Natureingang is the exception rather than the rule. After Walther von der Vogelweide it becomes a rigid and exasperating formula. The Tagelied is also rare, although Wolfram von Eschenbach wrote some brilliant specimens. The earlier Minnesänger use one or two types rare or absent in Provençal literature. We have already mentioned the Frauenstrophe or complaint of the lady. This dies with the rise of true Minnesang. Another form, the Wechsel, is a series of strophes, where man and woman alternately express their thoughts, although...