A History Of Wild Places

The word pastoral is used to describe works of art that romanticize rural life and landscapes. While pastoral poetry is the most well-known form of the genre, its conventions also appear in prose writing, visual art, and music. Pastoral poetry originated in Greek antiquity with poets like Theocritus and Hesiod. It became popular in the Italian and subsequent English Renaissance periods in the 15th and 16th centuries. Some of the key conventions of the genre are idealized natural landscapes, the presence of shepherds or cowherds, and a critique of urban life. Importantly, most writers of pastoral poetry were city dwellers without practical knowledge of rural life or work, so pastoral poems are often characterized by misconceptions and idealizations of rural life. The ignorance behind some of these depictions thus undercuts their critiques of modernity and urbanity.

The pastoral, anti-pastoral, and pastoral elegy are three distinct and important developments in the genre. One of the most famous pastoral poems is Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” (1599), in which the speaker, a shepherd, uses natural imagery to attempt to seduce a potential romantic partner. The poem opens with an entreaty that is repeated throughout the poem: