Oaten Reeds and Trumpets: Pastoral and Epic in Virgil, Spenser, and MiltonThorough study of the essential interdependence of the pastoral and epic genres. Proceeds historically from Virgil tracing the evolution of the heroic toward the increasing accommodation of the pastoral. Establishes principles for interpreting the works of major poets who set out to resolve the tensions between imagination and reality, contemplation and action, poetry and prophecy. |
Contents
17 | |
20 | |
35 | |
43 | |
Spenser and the Pastoral | 55 |
The Shepheardes Calender | 59 |
The Faerie Queene | 89 |
Miltons Pastoral Poetry | 134 |
Milton and the Epic Tradition | 186 |
Miltonic Variations on the Pastoral | 191 |
Perspectives and Pastoral Modes | 209 |
Creation as Pastoral | 220 |
Paradise Lost II | 228 |
Judgment and the Georgic | 244 |
History and the Return of the Epic | 249 |
The ShepherdHero | 260 |
On the Morning of Christs Nativity | 135 |
LAllegro and II Penseroso | 146 |
Arcades | 154 |
A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle | 158 |
Lycidas | 173 |
Paradise Lost I | 185 |
The Transformation of the Pastoral | 264 |
Notes | 269 |
List of Works Cited | 276 |
Index | 282 |
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Common terms and phrases
Adam and Eve Adam's Aeneas Aeneid allegory angels Arcadia beauty Bliss Book Bower Calidore celestial Christ Christian Colin Comus contemplative dance death deeds describes divine earth Eclogue Edmund Spenser Eve's evil Faerie Queene fallen world flock flowers fruit Garden of Adonis Georgics God's golden age golden world grace harmony Heaven heavenly hero heroic action heroism Hobbinol human humility idyllic Il Penseroso innocence John Milton Knight L'Allegro Lady locus amoenus Lycidas man's mankind masque melancholy Michael moral eclogues moreover Muse mutability myth narrator Nativity Ode nature nymphs Orpheus otium pagan Paradise Lost pastoral and epic pastoral enclave pastoral ideal pastoral otium pastoral poetry pastoral world Pastorella Penseroso physical poem poet poet's poetic quest recreative Red Cross Renaissance reveals Satan Shepheardes Calender shepherd shepherd-poet simile singing match Spenser spiritual suggests symbolic thee thematic theme Theocritus thir tion Tityrus tradition tree University Press Virgil virtue vision woods
Popular passages
Page 216 - But neither breath of Morn when she ascends With charm of earliest Birds, nor rising Sun On this delightful land, nor herb, fruit, flow'r, Glist'ring with dew, nor fragrance after showers, Nor grateful Ev'ning mild, nor silent Night With this her solemn Bird, nor walk by Moon Or glittering Star-light without thee is sweet.
Page 229 - her loveliness, ... so absolute she seems And in herself complete, so well to know Her own, that what she wills to do or say, Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best; All higher knowledge in her presence falls Degraded, Wisdom in discourse with her Loses discount'nanc't, and like folly shows; Authority and Reason on her wait.
Page 181 - The glowing Violet, The Musk-rose, and the well-attir'd Woodbine, With Cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, And every flower that sad embroidery wears; Bid Amaranthus all his beauty shed, And Daffadillies fill their cups with tears, To strew the Laureate Hearse where Lycid lies.
Page 253 - O flow'rs That never will in other Climate grow, My early visitation, and my last At Ev'n, which I bred up with tender hand From the first op'ning bud, and gave ye Names, Who now shall rear ye to the Sun, or rank Your Tribes, and water from th
Page 136 - The lonely mountains o'er And the resounding shore, A voice of weeping heard, and loud lament; From haunted spring and dale Edg'd with poplar pale, The parting Genius is with sighing sent; With flow'r-inwov'n tresses torn The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.
Page 250 - Must I thus leave thee Paradise? thus leave Thee Native Soil, these happy Walks and Shades, Fit haunt of Gods? where I had hope to spend, Quiet though sad, the respite of that day That must be mortal to us both.
Page 152 - flow'rs, and hear Such strains as would have won the ear Of Pluto, to have quite set free His half-regain'd Eurydice. These delights if thou canst give Mirth, with thee I mean to live.
Page 253 - Whom thus the Angel interrupted mild. Lament not Eve, but patiently resign What justly thou hast lost; nor set thy heart, Thus over-fond, on that which is not thine; Thy going is not lonely, with thee goes Thy Husband, him to follow thou art bound; Where he abides, think there thy native soil.