Pastoralism in 18th Century Poetry

Pastoralism in 18th Century Poetry The pastoral is a poetic genre popularized in the 18th century that idealizes the peaceful and simple countryside lifestyle. Pastoral poems are ordinarily written about those who live close to nature, namely shepherds and farmers. These poems about rustic tranquillity often relate a life in which humans lived contentedly off the earth. The pastoral poem often looks to nature and the simple life as a retreat from the complications of …showed first 75 words of 1015 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1015 total…are not without value, and Thomas Gray’s poem teaches us that life is precious and delicate thing that should not be taken for granted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography** Texts Cited Duck, Stephen. “The Thresher’s Labour.” Poems on Several Occasions. 1736. Gray, Thomas. “An Elegy Wrote in a Country Churchyard.” British Literature 1640- 1789: An Anthology. Ed. Robert DeMaria JR. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996. Lexico LLC. Lexico LLC Online Dictionary. 8 May, 2001 <http://www.dictionary.com/ cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=thresh>.