ENG 6316 Pastoral Poetry
Examination of the influence of classical forms in English Literature through the tradition of pastoral poetry. After noting the Greek origins of the form, most especially in Theocritus, a close study of Vergil's Eclogues as a precursor to study of English examples. Primary focus is the blending of the classical and Biblical in Spenser's The Shepheardes Calendar. Exploration of the continuation of the tradition in
Jonson, Milton, Wordsworth and Arnold and in twentieth-century poetry.