The poem clearly symbolizes the Provencal renascence; Calendau typifies the modern Provencal people, rising to an ideal life and great achievements through the memory of their traditions, and this ideal, this memory, are personified in the person of the beautiful Princess.

The time of the action is the eighteenth century, before the Revolution.  This is a deliberate choice of the poet who has a temporal symbolism in mind.  “I shall thus combine in my picture the three aspects of Provence on the eve of the Revolution:  in the background, the noble legends of the past; in the foreground the social corruption of the evil days; and before us the better future, the future and the reparation personified in the son of the working classes, guardians of the tradition of the country.”

As regards the execution, it is masterly, and cannot be ranked below Mireio.  There is the same enthusiastic love of nature, the same astonishing resources of expression, the same novelty and originality.  In place of the rustic nature of Mireio, we have the wild grandeur of mountains and sea.  There is the same, nay, even greater, eloquence of the speakers, the same musical verse.

“Car, d’aquesto ouro, ounto es la raro
Que di delice nous separo,
Jouine, amourous que siam, libre coume d’auceu? 
Regardo:  la Naturo brulo
A noste entour, e se barrulo
Dins li bras de l’Estieu, e chulo
Lou devourant alen de soun nove rousseu.

“Li serre clar e blu, li colo
Palo de la calour e molo,
Boulegon trefouli si mourre....  Ve la mar: 
Courouso e lindo coumo un veire,
Dou grand souleu i rai beveire
Enjusqu’au founs se laisso veire,
Se laisso coutiga per lou Rose e lou Var.”

“For now, where is the limit that separates us from joy, young, amorous as we are, free as birds!  Look:  Nature burns around us and rolls in the arms of Summer, and drinks in the devouring breath of her ruddy spouse.  The clear, blue peaks, the hills, pale and soft with the heat, are thrilled and stir their rounding summits.  Behold the sea, glistening and limpid as glass; in the thirsty rays of the great sun, she allows herself to be seen clear to the bottom, to be caressed by the Rhone and the Var.”

These are the words of Calendau when, seeking his reward after his final exploit, he learns that he has won the love of Esterello.  The poet never goes further in the voluptuous strain, and the mere music of the words, especially beginning “Ve la mar” is exquisite.  They are found in the first canto.  This scene wherein the Princess refuses to wed Calendau is typical of the poet.  The northern temperament is not impressed with these long tirades, full of ejaculations and apostrophes; they are apt to seem unnatural, insincere, and theatrical.  Intense feeling is not so verbose in the north.  In this particular Mistral is true to his race.  We quote entire the words of Calendau after the refusal of Esterello, itself full exclamation and apostrophizing:—­