Pastoral" (from
pastor, Latin for "shepherd") refers to a literary work dealing with shepherds and rustic life. Pastoral poetry is highly conventionalized; it presents an idealized rather than realistic view of rustic life. Classical (Greek and Latin) pastoral works date back to the 3rd century B.C., when the
Greek poet
Theocritus wrote his
Idylls about the rustic life of Sicily for the sophisticated citizens of the city of Alexandria. In the first century B.C.,
Virgil wrote
Latin poems depicting himself and his equally sophisticated friends and acquaintances as shepherds living a simple, rural life. Shakespeare's knowledge of pastoral conventions was drawn both from his
humanist education (which included Virgil and possibly Theocritus) and from his familiarity with the works of contemporaries who imitated the ancients by writing pastoral poetry in English.
Common
topics of pastoral poetry include
love and seduction; the value of
poetry; death and mourning; the
corruption of the city or court vs. the
"purity" of idealized country life; politics (generally treated satirically: the "shepherds"
critique society or easily identifiable political figures). A common pastoral poetic genre is the
eclogue (a dialogue between two shepherds). This conversation may be between a shepherd and the shepherdess he loves (generally his attempt to seduce her); a "singing contest" to see which shepherd is the better poet (a third may act as judge); or sophisticated banter between two supposedly "rude swains" who discuss a lady, their flocks, or a current event; lament a dead friend (a
eulogy or
elegy); or praise a notable individual. .Laudatory poems, laments upon a death, songs of courtship and the complaints of a lovesick shepherd also occur as pastoral monologues.
وتعريف البآستورال اتوقع مهم منزلته مس منيره بالبلآك بورد
