What’s an idyll?

Idylls are idealized poems, images, and music that romanticize rural peasant life, particularly shepherds. The term comes from the Greek word eidyllion and was popular during the Romantic period. Theocritus wrote some of the earliest idylls, and the subject often includes the concept of the “noble savage.” Famous writers of idylls include Goethe, Leopardi, Tennyson, […]

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