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Eclogue
An eclogue is a poem in a classical style on a pastoral subject. Poems in the genre are sometimes also called bucolics. Overview The form of the word ''eclogue'' in contemporary English developed from Middle English , which came from Latin , which came from Greek () in the sense 'selection, literary product' (which was only one of the meanings it had in Greek). The term was applied metaphorically to short writings in any genre, including parts of a poetic sequence or poetry book. The ancients referred to individual pieces in Virgil's ''Bucolica'' as , and the term was used by later Latin poets to refer to their own pastoral poetry, often in imitation of Virgil. The combination of Virgil's influence and the persistence of pastoral poetry through the Renaissance imposed ''eclogues'' as the accepted term for the genre. Later Roman poets who wrote eclogues include Calpurnius and Nemesianus. Variations on a theme In 1526, the Italian Renaissance poet Jacopo Sannazaro published his ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eclogues
The ''Eclogues'' (; ), also called the ''Bucolics'', is the first of the three major works of the Latin poet Virgil. Background Taking as his generic model the Greek bucolic poetry of Theocritus, Virgil created a Roman version partly by offering a dramatic and mythic interpretation of revolutionary change at Rome in the turbulent period between roughly 44 and 38 BC. Virgil introduced political clamor largely absent from Theocritus' poems, called idylls ("little scenes" or "vignettes"), even though erotic turbulence disturbs the "idyllic" landscapes of Theocritus. Virgil's book contains ten pieces, each called not an idyll but an eclogue ("draft" or "selection" or "reckoning"), populated by and large with herdsmen imagined conversing and performing amoebaean singing in largely rural settings, whether suffering or embracing revolutionary change or happy or unhappy love. Performed with great success on the Roman stage, they feature a mix of visionary politics and eroticism that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calpurnius
Titus Calpurnius Siculus was a Roman bucolic poet. Eleven eclogues have been handed down to us under his name, of which the last four, from metrical considerations and express manuscript testimony, are now generally attributed to Nemesianus, who lived in the time of the emperor Carus and his sons (latter half of the 3rd century). The separate authorship of the eclogues of Calpurnius and Nemesianus was established by Haupt. Controversy over date There is no doubt that Calpurnius's eclogues post-date Virgil's eclogues, as Calpurnius is heavily indebted, and frequently alludes to Virgil. However, the period in which Calpurnius was active has been debated and there is no overriding consensus. Edward Gibbon placed him in the reign of Carus (282283 AD). In the late nineteenth century, Haupt asserted that Calpurnius wrote during the reign of Nero (5468 AD). Evidence put forward for this Neronian dating includes the fact that, in Calpurnius's eclogues I, IV, and VII, the emperor is d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Collins (poet)
William Collins (25 December 1721 – 12 June 1759) was an English nation, English poet. Second in influence only to Thomas Gray, he was an important poet of the middle decades of the 18th century. His lyrical odes mark a progression from the Augustan literature, Augustan poetry of Alexander Pope's generation and towards the imaginative ideal of the Romantic era. Biography Born in Chichester, Sussex, the son of a hatmaker and former mayor of the town, Collins was educated at The Prebendal School, Winchester College, Winchester and Magdalen College, Oxford. While still at the university, he published the ''Persian Eclogues'', which he had begun at school. After graduating in 1743 he was undecided about his future. Failing to obtain a university fellowship, being judged by a military uncle as 'too indolent even for the army', and having rejected the idea of becoming a clergyman, he settled for a literary career and was supported in London by a small allowance from his cousin, George ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Diaper
William Diaper (1685–1717) was an English clergyman, poet and translator of the Augustan era. Having taken the wrong political side at a time of regime change, he lost the patrons who were advancing his career and died in obscurity shortly afterwards. Life Biographical details for William Diaper are sparse. He was born in Bridgwater, the son of Joseph Diaper, and attended Balliol College, Oxford in 1699 as a poor scholar (''pauper puer''), and took his BA degree in 1705. In 1709 he was ordained as a deacon and became a curate in the parish of Brent Knoll, overlooking the Somerset Levels, which he made the subject of his humorous first poem. His next set of poems, the innovative ''Nereides, or Sea-Eclogues'', was published in 1712 and earned him entry into the London literary world. In particular Diaper came to the notice of Jonathan Swift, who mentions the poet at this time in his ''A Journal to Stella''. In March 1712 he reported: "Here is a young fellow has writ some Sea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nemesianus
Marcus Aurelius Olympius Nemesianus was a Roman poet thought to have been a native of Carthage and flourished about AD 283. He was a popular poet at the court of the Roman emperor Carus (Historia Augusta, ''Carus'', 11). Works The works below are by, or sometimes attributed to, Nemesianus Didactic poetry Nemesianus wrote poems on the arts of fishing (''Halieutica''), aquatics (''Nautica'') and hunting ('' Cynegetica''), but only a fragment of the last, 325 hexameter lines, has been preserved. It is neatly expressed in good Latin, and was used as a school textbook in the 9th century AD. Two fragments exist of a poem about bird catching (''De aucupio''), which are sometimes attributed to Nemesianus, although this attribution is considered doubtful.Hornblower, S. and Spawforth, A. (eds) (1996), the Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd ed. p 1033 The Eclogues Four eclogues, formerly attributed to Titus Calpurnius Siculus, are now generally considered to be by Nemesianus. The Prais ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pastoral
A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts such life in an idealized manner, typically for urban audiences. A ''pastoral'' is a work of this genre, also known as bucolic, from the Greek , from , meaning a cowherd. Literature Pastoral literature in general Pastoral is a mode of literature in which the author employs various techniques to place the complex life into a simple one. Paul Alpers distinguishes pastoral as a mode rather than a genre, and he bases this distinction on the recurring attitude of power; that is to say that pastoral literature holds a humble perspective toward nature. Thus, pastoral as a mode occurs in many types of literature (poetry, drama, etc.) as well as genres (most notably the pastoral elegy). Terry Gifford, a prominent literary theorist, define ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Barclay
Dr Alexander Barclay (c. 1476 – 10 June 1552) was a poet and clergyman of the Church of England, probably born in Scotland. Biography Barclay was born in about 1476. His place of birth is matter of dispute, but William Bulleyn, who was a native of Ely, and probably knew him when he was in the monastery there, asserts that he was born "beyonde the cold river of Twede" (''River Tweed'', i.e. in Scotland). His early life was spent at Croydon, but it is not certain whether he was educated at Oxford or Cambridge. It may be presumed that he took his degree, as he uses the title of "Syr" in his translation of Sallust's ''Bellum Jugurthinum'', and in his will he is called Doctor of Divinity. From the numerous incidental references in his works, and from his knowledge of European literature, it may be inferred that he spent some time abroad. Thomas Cornish, suffragan bishop in the diocese of Bath and Wells, and provost of Oriel College, Oxford, from 1493 to 1507, appointed h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scott Of Amwell
John Scott (January 9, 1731 – December 12, 1783), known as Scott of Amwell, was an English landscape gardener and writer on social matters. He was also the first notable Quaker poet, although in modern times he is remembered for only one anti-militarist poem. Life John Scott was the son of a successful London draper who later retired to Amwell House in the Hertfordshire village of Great Amwell and worked from there as a maltster. The family were Quakers and John's elder brother Samuel (1719–88) eventually settled in Hertford as a Quaker minister. Scott stayed at home and undertook the improvement of the grounds from 1760, modelling them on those of William Shenstone at the Leasowes, which he visited. Its principal feature was a grotto consisting of six subterranean rooms whose surfaces were covered in flints, shells and minerals, :Where glossy pebbles pave the varied floors, :And rough flint-walls are deck'd with shells and ores, :And silvery pearls, spread o'er the roofs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Chatterton
Thomas Chatterton (20 November 1752 – 24 August 1770) was an English poet whose precocious talents ended in suicide at age 17. He was an influence on Romantic artists of the period such as Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth and Coleridge. Although fatherless and raised in poverty, Chatterton was an exceptionally studious child, publishing mature work by the age of 11. He was able to pass off his work as that of an imaginary 15th-century poet called Thomas Rowley, chiefly because few people at the time were familiar with medieval poetry, though he was denounced by Horace Walpole. At 17, he sought outlets for his political writings in London, having impressed the Lord Mayor, William Beckford, and the radical leader John Wilkes, but his earnings were not enough to keep him, and he poisoned himself in despair. His unusual life and death attracted much interest among the romantic poets, and Alfred de Vigny wrote a play about him that is still performed today. The oil painting ''The D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Wortley Montagu
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (née Pierrepont; 15 May 168921 August 1762) was an English aristocrat, writer, and poet. Born in 1689, Lady Mary spent her early life in England. In 1712, Lady Mary married Edward Wortley Montagu, who later served as the British ambassador to the Sublime Porte. Lady Mary joined her husband in the Ottoman excursion, where she was to spend the next two years of her life. During her time there, Lady Mary wrote extensively on her experience as a woman in Ottoman Istanbul. After her return to England, Lady Mary devoted her attention to the upbringing of her family before dying of cancer in 1762. Lady Mary is today chiefly remembered for her letters, particularly her '' Turkish Embassy Letters'' describing her travels to the Ottoman Empire, as wife to the British ambassador to Turkey, which Billie Melman describes as "the very first example of a secular work by a woman about the Muslim Orient".Melman, Billie. ''Women's Orients: English Women and the Middl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ambrose Philips
Ambrose Philips (167418 June 1749) was an English poet and politician. He feuded with other poets of his time, resulting in Henry Carey bestowing the nickname "Namby-Pamby" upon him, which came to mean affected, weak, and maudlin speech or verse. Life He was born in Shropshire of a Leicestershire family. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and St John's College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow in 1699. He seems to have lived chiefly at Cambridge until he resigned his fellowship in 1708, and his pastorals were probably written in this period. He worked for Jacob Tonson the bookseller, and his ''Pastorals'' opened the sixth volume of Tonson's ''Miscellanies'' (1709), which also contained the pastorals of Alexander Pope. Philips was a staunch Whig, and a friend of Richard Steele and Joseph Addison. In Nos. 22, 23, 30 and 32 (1713) of ''The Guardian'' he was rashly praised as the only worthy successor to Edmund Spenser. The writer, probably Thomas Tickell, pointedly ignored ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phineas Fletcher
Phineas Fletcher (8 April 1582 – 13 December 1650) was an English poet, elder son of Dr Giles Fletcher, and brother of Giles the Younger. He was born at Cranbrook, Kent, and was baptized on 8 April 1582. Life He was admitted a scholar of Eton, and in 1600 entered King's College, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. in 1604, and M.A. in 1608, and was one of the contributors to ''Sorrow's Joy'' (1603). His pastoral drama, ''Sicelides, or Piscatory'' was written (1614) for performance before James I, but only produced after the king's departure at King's College. He had been ordained priest and before 1611 became a fellow of his college, but he left Cambridge before 1616, apparently because certain emoluments were refused him. He became chaplain to Sir Henry Willoughby, who presented him in 1621 to the rectory of Hilgay, Norfolk, where he married and spent the rest of his life. Works Phineas Fletcher wrote throughout his life. At his death he left behind a body of literature larger th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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