Pastoral poem
A pastoral poem is a poetic genre that portrays idealized rural landscapes and lifestyles, emphasizing the relationship between humans and nature. Originating in ancient Greece, it includes themes such as agricultural labor, romance, and critiques of society, often utilizing mythology and symbolism. The genre began with the oral poet Hesiod in the 8th century BCE, who integrated pastoral elements in his poem *Works and Days*. Theocritus, a 3rd-century BCE poet, further developed this tradition with his *Idylls*, capturing the simplicity and charm of rustic life. Virgil's *Eclogues* and *Georgics* expanded the genre in Roman literature, blending pastoral themes with discussions of love and labor. The Italian Renaissance saw poets like Dante and Boccaccio adopt and adapt these themes, leading to the creation of pastoral romance. In English literature, Edmund Spenser established the pastoral tradition with his *The Shepheardes Calender*. Although the pastoral genre experienced decline due to urbanization, modern poets continue to reflect on humanity’s connection to nature, addressing contemporary environmental issues within their works.
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Pastoral poem
The pastoral—derived from the Latin word meaning “shepherd”—is a genre and mode of poetry that depicts rural landscapes and lifestyles. Considering the relationship between humans and the natural environment, poets writing in the pastoral tradition typically idealized and romanticized country life, portraying it as full of leisure and pleasure. Common themes within pastoral poems include agricultural labor; romance, seduction, and unrequited love; the power of poetry; critique of politics, religion, and the complexity of modern city life; and, in the pastoral elegy, mourning and lament. Within this convention, mythology, symbolism, and allegory are commonly used poetic devices.
Overview
The pastoral poem originated in ancient Greece in the eighth and seventh centuries BCE. The earliest use of pastoral elements is attributed to the oral poet, Hesiod. Hesiod composed the long poem Works and Days, which acts as a farmers’ almanac, providing instruction on agricultural labor and rural livelihood, interspersed with the drama of mythological characters. The first written pastoral poem was composed by Theocritus—largely credited with its creation—in the third century BCE. Describing the charms of rustic life, Theocritus wrote a series of short poems called Idylls or “little scenes,” in which mythical characters and rural peasants engage in traditional folk practices such as singing contests.
Just before the turn of the first century, the famous Roman poet Virgil composed his Eclogues (meaning “selections”), also known as the Bucolics (meaning “care of cattle”). Virgil modeled his poems, in part, after Theocritus’s Idylls. The Eclogues portray a half-real, half-fantastical life of herdsmen conversing about love, labor, and politics. Georgics, Virgil’s second pastoral work, details agricultural toils—such as beekeeping, raising animals, and planting crops—while portraying the struggle of human labor in the natural world.
Italian Renaissance poets, such as Dante, Petrarch, and Giovanni Boccaccio, adopted Virgilian pastoral tropes and themes in their own poems about rural life. Later, Jacopo Sannazaro (author of Arcadia, published in 1504 and considered the first pastoral romance), Matteo Maria Boiardo, and other Italian poets wrote short lyrical poems representing an idyllic rural life of peaceful leisure and pleasure. These exaggerated representations of simple pastoral life were sometimes used to impact the political perceptions of urban audiences.
Italian pastoral traditions greatly influenced poets writing in English. Elizabethan poet Edmund Spenser was the first to firmly establish the pastoral genre in the English language with his series of poems, The Shepheardes Calender (1579). Other influential English pastoral poems include William Browne’s Britannia’s Pastorals (1613–16) and Alexander Pope’s Pastorals (1709). English poets also developed the pastoral elegy—a form of poetry that combines the pastoral tradition with lament for the dead. Famous pastoral elegies include John Milton’s “Lycidas” (1638) and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Adonias (1821).
While the pastoral poem waned after the rapid urbanization of the Industrial Revolution, twentieth and twenty-first century poets continue to meditate on the human relationship to the natural world through pastoral poetry. As rural spaces are increasingly challenged due to development and resource extraction, contemporary pastoral poems often respond to crises in the natural world. Companion Grasses (2013) by Brian Teare is one example of postmodern pastoral poetry.
Bibliography
Alpers, Paul. What Is Pastoral? Chicago: U of P, 1997. Print.
Breed, Brian W. Pastoral Inscriptions: Reading and Writing Virgil’s Eclogues. 2006. London: Bloomsbury, 2013. Digital file.
Corey, Joshua, and G. C. Waldrep, eds. The Arcadia Project: North American Postmodern Pastoral. Boise: Ahsahta, 2012. Print.
Hiltner, Ken. What Else Is Pastoral? Renaissance Literature and the Environment. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2011. Print.
Little, Katherine C. Transforming Work: Early Modern Pastoral and Late Medieval Poetry. Notre Dame: U of Notre Dame P, 2013. Print.
Poggioli, Renato. The Oaten Flute: Essays on Pastoral Poetry and the Pastoral Ideal. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1975. Print.
Potts, Donna L. Contemporary Irish Poetry and the Pastoral Tradition. Columbia: U of Missouri P, 2011. Print.
Segal, Charles. Poetry and Myth in Ancient Pastoral: Essays on Theocritus and Virgil. 1981. [N.p.]: Princeton UP, 2014. Print.
Teare, Brian. Companion Grasses. Richmond: Omnidawn, 2013. Print.
Twiddy, Iain. Pastoral Elegy in Contemporary British and Irish Poetry. New York: Continuum, 2012. Print.