Pastoral Literature

Pastoral literature is a genre involving both prose and poetry that focuses on the natural world, specifically on the relationship between humans and nature, which pastoral literature presents as ideal. The word pastoral is Latin and derives from pastor, meaning shepherd. Not surprisingly, shepherds and the beautiful natural settings in which they live and work are often two of the main characteristics of pastoral literature. The setting in pastoral literature is idyllic and one far removed from the busyness of more crowded city environments. Pastoral literature emphasizes the life of the shepherd or shepherdess and contrasts that against the perceived evils of urban life. The literature has its beginnings in Ancient Greece and endured in some form through the eighteenth century. Writers of this genre range from classical Greek and Roman poets Theocritus and Virgil to later English poets Edmund Spenser, John Milton, and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Pastoral literature’s longevity and success has been attributed to the archetypal connection between humans and their desire for the simple life found in nature.

Background

Pastoral literature’s origins can be traced to the Greek poet Hesiod who lived sometime between the mid-eighth to the mid-seventh century BCE. Hesiod’s poem “Works and Days” provides a picture of the Golden Age, which he considered to be the ideal time in human history. The poem is presented as a sort of instruction manual for the agricultural way of life. It recalls human life and the place that humans have in the world, commenting that everyday life is a trying experience and that human beings must work hard if they are to survive. The poem also makes a point of promoting honesty and justice as part of the ideal human experience.

The Greek poet Theocritus, who was born in Sicily sometime about the start of the third century BCE, wrote what some modern scholars consider to be the first true examples of pastoral, or bucolic, poetry. His work, a group of about thirty poems known as the Idylls, extolls the simple life of a shepherd and includes a poem in which a goatherd convinces a shepherd to sing the tale of the shepherd Daphnis who died from an unrequited love. The work portrays shepherds as the ultimate friend of the wild nymphs and the caretakers of all the world’s animals. Theocritus developed the idealized pastoral setting of Arcadia, a utopia-like realm that shared its name with a real rural Greek province.

Theocritus’s poetry came to the attention of Roman poet Virgil, who lived during the first century BCE. Virgil may be best known for his epic poem, The Aeneid, which tells the story of a Trojan warrior, Aeneas, who flees the destruction of Troy and becomes one of the founders of Rome. However, Virgil was also inspired by Theocritus to write a significant number of pastoral poems, many of which highlight the contrast between urban and rural life.

Virgil directly modeled his poetry after Theocritus, even using the death of Daphnis in one of his Eclogues, a collection of pastoral poems also known as the Bucolics. In his fifth Eclogue, Virgil writes that after Daphnis died and he was mourned by his nymph mother, no one was left to tend to the flock. As a result, the fields became overgrown with weeds and the crop yields were lessened. Virgil’s poem explores a theme that shepherds such as Daphnis have a vital role to play, even if they will not be remembered by most people after their death. Virgil’s poem touches on the idea that shepherds are more worthy people than some more cultured individuals and the fact they will be forgotten after death is a sad commentary.

Overview

Pastoral poetry underwent a significant revival during the Renaissance, a period of cultural and artistic rebirth that swept across Europe from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century. During this period artists and authors rediscovered the works of Classical Greek and Roman literature and art. The works of Theocritus, Virgil, and other pastoralists inspired a new wave of bucolic poetry.

One of the major examples was written by sixteenth-century English poet Edmund Spenser. His 1579 work, The Shepheardes Calender, is directly influenced by Virgil and his Eclogues. Spenser wrote a series of twelve eclogues, one for each month of the year. Each eclogue features a different speaker, who is typically a shepherd or other rustic figure who speaks on the simple beauty of pastoral life.

One of Spenser’s contemporaries, English playwright Christopher Marlowe, published the poem “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love,” in which the narrator tries to convince his true love to come away with him to live a simple life. In the work, Marlowe’s shepherd says he will make his love “A gown made of the finest wool; Which from our pretty lambs we pull; Fair lined slippers for the cold; With buckles of the purest gold.”

English poet and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh wrote a response to Spenser’s poem in which the shepherd’s love rejects his affections. In Raleigh’s “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd,” the nymph sees the shepherd’s preoccupation with bestowing gifts upon her as going against the true nature of pastoral life. The nymph says that all the wonderful things he offers will one day wither and die from age. The countryside seems the perfect place, but it is not the idealized utopia the shepherd makes it seem. Raleigh writes, “Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses; Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies; Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten; In folly ripe, in reason rotten.”

Another notable work of the pastoral era in English literature is Paradise Lost written by English poet John Milton in 1667. Milton’s epic is inspired by the book of Genesis in the Bible and details the fall of Adam and Eve through original sin. In Milton’s work and the book of Genesis, Adam and Eve live in a perfect natural utopia, but because of their sin, they must leave the Garden of Eden and all its divine beauty. Milton describes the garden as having “herb, tree, fruit, and flower, glistering with dew” and “fragrant the fertile earth after soft showers.”

Another type of pastoral poetry is known as a pastoral elegy, in which a poem is used to mark the death of someone. Typically, pastoral elegies involve a shepherd eulogizing and expressing grief regarding the passing of a fellow shepherd. In addition to discussing grief, the elegy can also delve into philosophical issues and explore thoughts about the workings of life and the place of humans in the world. In 1638, Milton wrote the poem “Lycidas,” which is an example of a pastoral elegy. In the poem, Milton laments, “Who would not sing for Lycidas? … He must not float upon his watery bier; Unwept, and welter to the parching wind; Without the meed of some melodious tear.”

Other examples of pastoral poems often featured the simplicity and joys of country living, away from the bustle of larger cities. Katherine Phillip's 1664 poem "A Country Life" lauds the simplicity and joy found in country life and explains the historical tradition of country life. Phillip paints the countryside as a place to follow passion, where the dweller is free from the noise, war, and woes of city life.

Themes

Although the main focus of all pastoral literature is on the beauty of rural life over the life found in more populated communities, several other themes can be found throughout the literary style. One of the main themes is the contrast between order and chaos, with the ordered beauty of the natural world set against the disorder found in the human world. If humans wish to find true peace, they must leave behind the chaos of cities and villages and embrace the simple joys of nature.

In that same vein, pastoral existence is also seen as far simpler than the complex lives of people in urban environments. This simplicity is often seen in the characters of the poems, as the less-educated, rustic shepherds are portrayed as truly happy when compared with the more cultured city folk. This theme can be illustrated by the common saying, “ignorance is bliss.”

Finally, pastoral literature also embraces the theme of virtue vs vice, with the natural world associated with the former and the human world with the latter. By extension, shepherds and other pastoralists are considered to live more virtuous lives, because through their simplicity they are more in touch with nature. Those in urban areas have moved away from this truth and are more likely to fall victim to the inherent vice that thrives in cities.

Bibliography

Arnone, Chris M. "A Guide to Pastoral Poetry." Book Riot, 8 July 2021, bookriot.com/pastoral-poetry/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2024.

Green, James. "Pastoral Poetry: Arcadia Through the Ages." The Society of Classical Poets, 29 Apr. 2018, classicalpoets.org/2018/04/29/essay-pastoral-poetry-arcadia-through-the-ages/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2024.

Holm, Luke. "An Analysis of The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd by Sir Walter Raleigh." Owlcation, 6 July 2022, owlcation.com/humanities/An-Analysis-of-The-Nymphs-Reply-to-the-Shepherd-by-Sir-Walter-Raleigh. Accessed 30 Oct. 2024.

Imrie, Patrick. "The 'Pastoral' Genre in Poetry and Literature Flourished in the Last Years of the 16th Century." Reading Shakespeare, 2013, btckstorage.blob.core.windows.net/site6175/Docs%20&%20Schedules/10.%20The%20Pastoral.pdf. Accessed 30 Oct. 2024.

Marlowe, Christopher. "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love." Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44675/the-passionate-shepherd-to-his-love. Accessed 30 Oct. 2024.

"Pastoral." Poem Analysis, poemanalysis.com/genre/pastoral/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2024.

"Poetry 101: What Is a Pastoral Poem?" Masterclass, 16 Aug. 2021, www.masterclass.com/articles/poetry-101-what-is-a-pastoral-poem-learn-about-the-conventions-and-history-of-pastoral-poems-with-examples. Accessed 30 Oct. 2024.