An eclogue is a poem in a classical style on a pastoral subject. Poems in the genre are sometimes also called bucolics. Poetry (ancient Greek: poieo = create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, which begins roughly with the earliest-recorded Greek poetry of Homer (7th century BC), and continues through the rise of Christianity and the fall of the Western Roman Empire (5th century AD... Titians The Pastoral Concert Pastoral refers to the lifestyle of shepherds and pastoralists, moving livestock around larger areas of land according to seasons and availability of water and feed. ... A genre [], (French: kind or sort from Greek: γένος (genos)) is a loose set of criteria for a category of literary composition; the term is also used for any other form of art or utterance. ... The Eclogues is one of three major works by the Latin poet Virgil. ...

The etymology of the word is a Romanization of the Greek eklegē (εκλεγη), meaning 'draft, choice, selection, reckoning'. The term originally referred to short poems of any genre, or selections from poetry-books. The ancients referred to individual poems of Virgil's Bucolica as 'eclogae') and the term was used by later Latin poets to refer to their own bucolic poetry, often in imitation of Virgil. The combination of Virgil's influence and the persistence of bucolic poetry through the Renaissance imposed 'eclogues' as the accepted term for the genre. Later Roman poets who wrote eclogues include Calpurnius and Nemesianus. Not to be confused with Entomology, the scientific study of insects. ... For other uses, see Virgil (disambiguation). ... Titus Calpurnius, Roman bucolic poet, surnamed Siculus from his birthplace or from his imitation of the style of the Sicilian Theocritus, most probably flourished during the reign of Nero. ... Marcus Aurelius Olympius Nemesianus, Roman poet, a native of Carthage, flourished about AD 283. ...

Modern Eclogues

In English literature, Edmund Spenser's The Shepheardes Calendar (1579) belongs to the genre (twelve eclogues, one for each month of the year). Alexander Pope produced a series of four eclogues (one for each season of the year) in imitation of Virgil in 1709. The Spanish poet Garcilaso de la Vega also wrote eclogues in the Virgilian style. In French, Pierre de Ronsard wrote a series of eclogues under the title Les Bucoliques, and Clément Marot also wrote in the genre. In the seventeenth century, collections of eclogues were published by the Polish poets Szymon Szymonowic and Józef Bartłomiej Zimorowic. Miklós Radnóti, the Hungarian Jewish poet wrote remarkable eclogues about his tragic era, the Holocaust (he was executed by the fleeing German army some months before the end of WWII). Seamus Heaney's collection Electric Light (2001) includes a "Bann Valley Eclogue", a "Glanmore Eclogue", and an English version of Virgil's ninth eclogue. The Spanish poet Giannina Braschi wrote both a poetic treatise on Garcilaso de la Vega's Eclogues, as well as a book of poems in homage to the Spanish master, entitled "Empire of Dreams". The most prolific modern poet writing eclogues was Louis MacNeice. His eclogues included "Eclogue by a five barred gate", "Eclogue for the motherless", "An eclogue for christmas", and "Eclogue from Iceland". The term English literature refers to literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; Joseph Conrad was Polish, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, Salman Rushdie is Indian, V.S... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Events January 6 - The Union of Atrecht united the southern Netherlands under the Duke of Parma, governor in the name of king Philip II of Spain. ... For other uses, see Alexander Pope (disambiguation). ... // Events January 12 - Two-month freezing period begins in France - The coast of the Atlantic and Seine River freeze, crops fail and at least 24. ... Garcilaso de la Vega (c. ... Pierre de Ronsard Pierre de Ronsard, commonly referred to as Ronsard (September 11, 1524 – December, 1585), was a French poet and prince of poets (as his own generation in France called him). ... Clément Marot (1496–1544), was a French poet of the Renaissance period. ... Szymon Szymonowic, Simon Simonides (born 24 october 1558 in Lwow – died. ... Józef BartÅ‚omiej Zimorowic (August 20, 1597 - October 14, 1677) was a Polish poet and historian of the Baroque era, most famous for his pastoral poems Sielanki nowe ruskie (New Ruthenian Pastorals), first published in Kraków in 1663. ... Miklós Radnóti (1909 – 1944) was a Hungarian Jewish writer from Budapest who fell victim to the Holocaust. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination... For other uses, see Holocaust (disambiguation) and Shoah (disambiguation). ... Seamus Justin Heaney (IPA: ) (born 13 April 1939) is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. ... Electric Light (2001) is a collection of poems written by Irish Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ... Cutting-edge poet and novelist Giannina Braschi (b. ... Frederick Louis MacNeice (September 12, 1907 – September 3, 1963) was a British and Irish poet and playwright. ...

Igor Stravinsky titled the second and third movements of his Duo Concertant (1932) "Eclogue I" and "Eclogue II". The middle movement of his three-movement Ode (1943) is also titled "Eclogue". Igor Stravinsky. ... Year 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1932 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Variations on a theme

In 1526 the Italian Renaissance poet Jacopo Sannazaro published his Eclogae Piscatoriae, replacing the traditional Virgilian shepherds with fishermen from the Bay of Naples. He was imitated by the English poet Phineas Fletcher in his Piscatorie Eclogs (1633). Another English poet, William Diaper, produced Nereides: or Sea-Eclogues in 1712. The speakers are sea-gods and sea-nymphs. By the early eighteenth century, the whole pastoral genre was ripe for parody. John Gay ridiculed the eclogues of Ambrose Philips in his Shepherd's Week and Mary Wortley Montagu wrote six "Town Eclogues", substituting the fashionable society of contemporary London for Virgil's rural Arcadia. Jacopo Sannazaro (1458 - April 27, 1530), Italian poet of the Renaissance, was born in 1458 at Naples of a noble family, said to have been of Spanish origin, which had its seat at San Nazaro near Pavia. ... Phineas Fletcher (1582-1650) was an English poet, elder son of Dr Giles Fletcher, and brother of Giles the younger. ... William Diaper (1685-1717) was an English poet of the Augustan era. ... John Gay John Gay (30 June 1685 - 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist. ... Ambrose Philips (c. ... The Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (May 26, 1689 - August 21, 1762), was an English woman of letters. ...

References

• Van Sickle, John B (2005). The Design of Virgil's Bucolics. Duckworth. 1-85399-676-9.  [1]
• Hornblower, Simon, and Antony Spawforth (1999). The Oxford Classical Dictionary: Third Edition. Oxford University Press. 019866172X. 
• Theocritus (1999). Theocritus: A Selection. Cambridge University Press. 052157420X. 
• Virgil (comm. by W. V. Clausen) (1994). Virgil: Eclogues. Clarendon, Oxford University Press. 0198150350.  Reviewed in "The End of the Eclogues" [2]