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Pastoral Poetry

Pastoral Poetry. “ 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. Common Topics. Love and seduction

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Pastoral Poetry

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  1. Pastoral Poetry • “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.

  2. Common Topics • 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 (shepherds critique society or easily identifiable political figures) • Eclogues (a dialogue between two shepherds)

  3. Pastoral Elegy • Expresses the poet’s grief at the loss of a friend or important person • Praise for the dead shepherd • Effects of death upon nature • The poet’s acceptance of the inevitability of death and the hope for immortality

  4. Famous Pastoral Poetry • Christopher Marlowe’s “A Passionate Shepherd to His Love” • Sir Walter Raleigh’s “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”

  5. The Passionate Shepherd to His Love • Carpe diem and immediate gratification of their sexual passions • Love in the countryside will be like a return to the Garden of Eden • There is a tradition that our problems are caused by having too many restrictions by society • If we get away from these rules, we can return to the pristine condition of happiness • If the nymph would go a maying with the shepherd, they would have the perfect life!

  6. In quatrains • Iambic tetrameter • The shepherd invites his love to experience the joys of nature • He hopes to return with the nymph to an Edenic life of free love in nature

  7. The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd • Raleigh argues that because time flies, we should not seize the day • There could be consequences to their roll in the grass • Time does not stand still; winter inevitably follows spring; therefore,we cannot act on impulses until we have examined the consequences

  8. The nymph reverses his images • Rocks grow cold • Fields yield to the harvest • The flocks re driven to fold in winter • Rivers rage • Birds complain • Free love is impossible • The seasons pass as does time • Nymphs grow old, and shepherds grow cold

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