Bucolic, although often used as an adjective, is a noun originally describing a type of pastoral poetry that praises rural life over that of the city. The manner of a bucolic is usually somewhat fantastic, and the poetry tends to contrast the pleasant and pure life of the country with the corrupt and corrosive world of society. The term derives from Virgil, and "Bucolics" is a reference to a collection of poems. One set of bucolics was written by Virgil, while Theocritus and others also wrote collections of rusticated poems. In contemporary poetry, W. H. Auden wrote a sequence known as "Bucolics." A sculpture of Virgil, probably from the 1st century AD. Publius Vergilius Maro (October 15, 70 BC–19 BC), known in English as Virgil or Vergil, is a Latin poet, the author of the Eclogues, the Georgics and the Aeneid, the last being an epic poem of twelve books that... Theocritus, the creator of Ancient Greek bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC. Little is known of him beyond what can be inferred from his writings. ... Christopher Isherwood and W.H. Auden, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1939 Wystan Hugh Auden (February 21, 1907 – September 29, 1973) was an English poet and critic, widely regarded as among the most influential and important writers of the 20th century. ...