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Pastoral poetry is an ancient art form that idealizes rural life, with roots in the works of Theocritus and Virgil. Common themes include the virtues of country life, romance, pain, death, and politics. British literature embraced pastoral poetry in the Romantic and Victorian eras, with popular works by Matthew Arnold, Percy Shelley, Christopher Marlowe, and John Milton. The language celebrates the beauty and simplicity of country life and remains a studied art form today.
Pastoral poetry is an ancient art form that focuses on the idealistic view of rural life. The history of this type of verse is extensive, beginning in the works of Theocritus, a Greek poet, and Virgil, a great Roman writer. Pastoral verse continued to be popular in the Romantic and Victorian eras of British literature. Common themes of pastoral poetry include the virtues of country life, the seductive romance, pain, death, and the corruption of politics. Among the most popular poets to create this type of writing were Christopher Marlowe and John Milton.
It is commonly believed that pastoral poetry arose from the songs of shepherds in ancient times. While this is generally accepted, the earliest verses probably had little in common with later creations. In the 3rd century BC, Theocritus wrote nursery rhymes entitled Idylls on peasant life in Sicily, and they served to inform the inhabitants of the cities of Alexandria. In the 1st century BC, Virgil began writing verses that portrayed his sophisticated friends of him and himself as simple shepherds enjoying the pastoral lifestyle that was actually alien to them.
The Romantic and Victorian ages in British writings embraced pastoral poetry and began to produce much literature in this vein. British poets enjoyed praising the natural life that was exhibited in pastoral verse while comparing its beauty and simplicity with the corruption in the politics of city life. Among the most important and popular works of these eras was Matthew Arnold’s Thyrsis, in which the poet wrote of one of Virgil’s shepherds while commemorating the death of his friend, the 19th-century poet Arthur Hugh Clough. The Romantic poet Percy Shelley also published an important pastoral work called Adonais, written about the passing of the young genius poet John Keats.
Perhaps some of the most widely read and appreciated works in pastoral poetry were created by Marlowe and Milton. Marlowe wrote the poem The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, which includes a shepherd’s seductive plea to the girl of his dreams to live with him and share her love. Milton’s Lycidas was in the tradition of using pastoral poetry to commemorate a deceased, in this particular case, one of Milton’s classmates who had drowned at sea.
The language of pastoral poetry is one that celebrates the beautiful and simple nature of country life. Its roots are ancient and its popularity is long-lasting. It is an art form still studied by modern students and its impact has reverberated through the generations.
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