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pastoral

(Encyclopedia)pastoral, literary work in which the shepherd's life is presented in a conventionalized manner. In this convention the purity and simplicity of shepherd life is contrasted with the corruption and arti...

Pastoral Epistles

(Encyclopedia)Pastoral Epistles: name for the New Testament letters of Timothy and Titus.

idyl

(Encyclopedia)idyl ´dl [key], short poem. The ancient idyls, especially those of Bion and Moschus, were intended as little selections in the style of such longer poems as elegies or epics. There are 10 famous ...

bucolics

(Encyclopedia)bucolics: see pastoral.

elegy

(Encyclopedia)elegy, in Greek and Roman poetry, a poem written in elegiac verse (i.e., couplets consisting of a hexameter line followed by a pentameter line). The form dates back to 7th cent. BC in Greece and poets...

Racan, Honorat de Bueil, seigneur de

(Encyclopedia)Racan, Honorat de Bueil, seigneur de nrä´ d bö´y snyör´ d räkäN´ [key], 1589–1670, French poet. A disciple of Malherbe, he wrote some lyric poetry and a charming pastoral drama,...

Barclay, Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Barclay, Alexander bär´kl, –kl [key], 1475?–1552, Scottish clergyman and poet. Although the first to write pastoral eclogues in English, he is best known for The Ship of Fools (1509), a tran...

ballad opera

(Encyclopedia)ballad opera, in English drama, a play of comic, satiric, or pastoral intent, interspersed with songs, most of them sung to popular airs. First and best was The Beggar's Opera (1728) by John Gay. The ...

Chagai

(Encyclopedia)Chagai chä´g [key], town, W Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan, on the trade route to Afghanistan and Iran. Pastoral Baluchi and Brahui inhabit the region, which is noted for its Oriental ...

Browne, William

(Encyclopedia)Browne, William (William Browne of Tavistock)tv´stk [key], 1591?–1645?, English poet. An imitator of Spenser, he did his finest work in pastoral poetry, of which Britannia's Pastorals (1613...