originality of the similes that the Cankam poets have drawn from Nature. The eyes of a shrimp are compared to the flowers of the margosa. The folded petals of the gloriosa superba are said to resemble hands joined in prayer, its unfolded petals seem to be the lights that Nature sets up after sun-down, and its sagging leaves resemble the walk of drunken men. The rosy soles of the tired bare feet of a woman are compared to the tongue of a panting dog, and the green grass on which lie wood-apples to a green carpet on which children have left their toys. The stag’s horns are like twisted iron; and the lightning tears the veil of night. The white flowers of the murunkai which lie scattered are like the broken bits of foam on the sandy shore, and the cascade is like a sheet of linen. Cankam poetry is a naturalist’s paradise in the manner in which stems of trees and leaves and flowers are described.

Though certain poets excel in the description of certain regions as Kapilar does in kuriñci poetry and Perunkadunko in paalai poetry, they cultivated a feeling for Nature in all her moods and in all her regions. It has been said that Vergil and the Latin poets do not exhibit any great passion for mountains. Quintilian represents the current feeling of his countrymen when he says, species maritimis, planis, amoenis-beauty belongs to countries that lie beside the sea, level and pleasant. Though this statement about the absence of feeling for mountains finds notable exceptions in Vergil and Horace, it is on the whole true. The Tamil poets could not afford to neglect any single region or manifestation of Nature because of the exacting manner in which every region was prescribed to serve the needs of poetry. They had a trained eye for a general view of landscape as well as for particulars. They delight in the sights and sounds of landscape and paint their word picture often with tiny descriptive words. They are as much alive as any Grecian or Roman poet to the babbling of the brook, the roar of the cataract and the swift flowing river. Describing the darkness of a mountain cave, a poet says that it seems as if Night itself were asleep within it.¹² Nearly every poem in the Akam group is like a painting with lovers to the fore and behind them the regional landscape.

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   ¹²Puram; 126, 76.