English Literature / Unit 2 ENL 0117 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Pastoral
Captions available
The idea
Pastoral depicts an idealized life of shepherds in the countryside, usually for an urban audience. It descends from the Greek Theocritus and the Roman Virgil, and English poets used it for love poems, elegies and veiled commentary on court and church.
In practice
Shepherds, idealized, for city readers.
Where people slip
The shepherds are seldom about sheep.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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