Eclogue

An eclogue is a poem in a classical style on a pastoral subject. Poems in the genre are sometimes also called bucolics.

Ancient Eclogues

The Greek poets Hesiod, with his Works and Days, and Theocritus, in his Idylls, started the genre. Hesiod's poem is a matter-of-fact description of the seasonal life of a farmer, relatively sober and realistic; its literary descendant is Ovid's Fasti. The Idylls of Theocritus were much more influential; they were idealized fantasies portraying the life of the shepherds of Arcadia as a life of utopian leisure, taken up mostly by erotic pastimes. The Latin poet Virgil took Theocritus as his master, not Hesiod, in composing his own Eclogues, and most later attempts at producing work in the genre have followed Virgil's lead.

Related Topics:
Hesiod - Theocritus - Idyll - Farmer - Ovid - Arcadia - Utopia - Leisure - Erotic - Latin - Virgil

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