eclogue

An eclogue is a short pastoral poem, usually written as dialogue or a sequence of conversations among shepherds or rustic figures. It presents an idealized rural world and simple country life, often contrasted with urban or political concerns. The term comes from Greek eklogê, historically associated with selected or refined pieces, and in classical practice denotes a compact pastoral piece, sometimes called a bucolic.

Theocritus, 3rd century BCE, in Sicily, is credited with creating the pastoral eclogue form through his Idylls, which mingle shepherds' talk, love, and myth in rustic settings. The Latin poet Virgil, drawing on Theocritus, produced the Eclogues (c. 37 BCE), a collection of ten poems that established the template for Latin pastoral and strongly influenced later European poetry; Virgil often uses pastoral scenes to address contemporary politics and allegory.

In later centuries, the form was adapted across Europe. In Renaissance English literature, Edmund Spenser's The Shepheardes Calender (1579) and other works revived and transformed the genre, blending rustic speech with elaborate diction and allegory. The eclogue persisted as a compact, lyric-structured form used for social satire, personal longing, and political commentary, while remaining distinct from the longer pastoral epic or elegy.