Eclogues

An eclogue is a short pastoral poem, typically a dialogue or lyric spoken by shepherds or rustic figures, set in an idealized rural landscape. The term derives from Latin ecloga, from Greek eklogē, meaning "selection" or "gleanings." The form originated with Theocritus of Syracuse in the 3rd century BCE, whose Idylls established the bucolic mode; it was later refined by the Romans, especially Virgil in his Eclogues (c. 37–29 BCE).

Form and themes: Eclogues present rustic scenes and simple speech, often as dialogues between shepherds or exchanged verses. They center on love, seasons, animals, and the pleasures and pains of country life, using pastoral conventions and classical allusions. Some also carry political or social commentary beneath the surface through rustic voices.

Development and influence: After Virgil, writers such as Calpurnius Siculus and Nemesianus continued Roman pastoral poetry. In the Renaissance, the eclogue was revived in vernacular languages—Garcilaso de la Vega's Églogas in Spanish, Torquato Tasso and Guarini in Italian, and Spenser's The Shepheardes Calender in English—shaping European lyric poetry. The form contributed to pastoral elegy, with Milton's Lycidas, and influenced later Romantic and modern poetry, even as the strict eclogue faded.

Today, the term eclogue denotes a classical or Renaissance pastoral poem and is used in literary histories to describe a rural-verse mode, though some modern poets blend it with contemporary themes or experimental forms.