Eclogue

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈɛk.lɒɡ/

Definitions

1. A literary composition that features dialogue among characters, usually highlighting themes of pastoral life and nature's beauty
2. A poetic piece structured as a conversation between individuals, often centered around rustic settings and the simplicity of country life
3. A type of poetry that presents a dialogue between characters, typically focusing on rural themes and the idyllic aspects of nature

Etymology: The word looks like a classical name for a kind of poem, but its Greek ancestor meant nothing about poetry at all. In Ancient Greek, "eklogē" meant "selection" or "choosing out," the act of picking the best or most suitable item from a group. Its Latin descendant "ecloga" carried the same sense of a chosen piece, and that is how the word first made its way into English, where it arrived as "eclog" in Middle English. The poetic meaning came from a particular choice. The Roman poet Virgil gave the name to a collection of short pastoral poems, in which shepherds converse about love, loss and rural life, and the title marked these pieces as a selection of his verse. Because Virgil's works were so widely read, "ecloga" became the standard term for poems of this kind, and the sense of "a selected piece" narrowed into "a poem about shepherds in conversation." English writers borrowed both the form and the name. The dialogue between idealized rustic speakers, set against a countryside of gentle nature, became the defining feature of the eclogue, so that a word meaning simply "selection" came to name a poem whose charm lies in its imagined pastoral world.

Synonyms: pastoral poem