ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -One of the most famous examples of pastoral poetry is John Milton’s “Lycidas.” Written in 1637, the poem is written about Edward King, a fellow student of Milton’s who had died.

Detailed explanation-2: -Genre. Lycidas is a pastoral elegy, a genre initiated by Theocritus, also put to famous use by Virgil and Spenser. Christopher Kendrick asserts that one’s reading of Lycidas would be improved by treating the poem anachronistically, that is, as if it was one of the most original pastoral elegies.

Detailed explanation-3: -Lycidas is a pastoral elegy written on the death of Milton’s classmate Edward King who drowned in a shipwreck in the Iris Sea in which he has expressed his tribute to his friend using the elegiac form popularised by the Greek poet Theocritus and Virgil.

Detailed explanation-4: -Pastoral poetry is a genre or mode of poetry that refers to works that idealize country life and the landscape they take place in. Pastoral poems usually make use of an idyllic setting, one that is completely, or almost entirely, removed from society.

Detailed explanation-5: -A pastoral poem explores the fantasy of withdrawing from modern life to live in an idyllic rural setting. All pastoral poetry draws on the tradition of the ancient Greek poet Theocritus, who wrote romanticized visions of shepherds living rich and fulfilled lives.