10 Examples of Idyll

The idyll It is a short poetic composition that deals with love, friendship or musical duels and has an idealized natural environment as its setting. For example: "Idyll I", byTheocritus (310-260 BC) C).

The idyll belongs to lyric, because it expresses feelings, thoughts, reflections or moods. Generally, in this type of poem, stories are usually told, which can be told by a storyteller or they can be developed by dialogues either monologues.

The first idylls were developed in ancient Greece by Theocritus, Bion of Smyrna, and Moscus of Syracuse. These types of compositions were taken up by different Spanish poets, such as Ignacio de Luzán and Lope de Vega, in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.

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Characteristics of the idyll

• Characters. The characters are usually shepherds or peasants, but they can also be poets or mythological beings.
• bucolic theme. In general, the central theme is love, but other concepts can also be described, such as lament, the activities of pastoral life, the beauty of space or some topics of Greco-Roman mythology.
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• Space. The place is described using the locus amoenus, a literary topic that consists of characterizing the countryside or other natural spaces as pleasant and idyllic.
• Structure. The idyll, generally, is composed of verses of minor art (those that have between two and eight syllables), but, in some cases, it contains verses of major art (those that have more than eight syllables). Also, you can have one or more stanzas, since there are no specific metrical rules for this type of poem.
• Rhetorical figures. Different rhetorical figures are used in idylls, such as the topography, the hyperbole, the metaphor or the portrait, with the aim of generating an aesthetic effect.

examples of idyll

1. Fragment of “Idyll VIII. The bucolic singers, of Theocritus (310-260 a. C.)

Daphnis the beautiful herded
His oxen, as is famous, one day,
And Menalcas, that the cavernous mount
Taking care of the sheep he wandered,
He came out to meet her. the hair
Blonde of both was,
And neither one nor the other young man
He was still pointing the bozo;
In pressing the sonorous flute
Both were right-handed
And both to two in the singing masters.
Menalcas barely saw the single
Daphnis, thus sweetly said:

Menalcas.
Daphnis, guardian of the mooing flock!
Do you want to sing with me?
I swear that whenever I insist on fighting
The certainty of defeating you shelter.

And thus Daphnis replied to his friend:

Daphnis.
Of lanigerous gray shepherd and charm,
Menalcas, great flautist!
You will never defeat me even if so much
Blow, burst your throat singing. (…)

1. Fragment of “Idyll X. The reapers”, of Theocritus (310-260 a. C.)

(…) Milon.
I didn't want to hurt you.
Reap the harvest, and in honor of your friend
Sing to us: that you were a musician I don't forget,
And so the fatigue will be less. (…)

bat.
It's dark purple
And the hyacinth shades black shade;
But her beauty shines
On the flowery carpet
And in the garlands his beauty amazes.

Of the cytisus the goat,
And from the goat the wolf walks after.
of whom the land tills
to the plow leans
The crane: your face fascinates me.

I hope the treasure
I had Croesus most opulent!
carved in gold
Our effigies would see
In her temple the Goddess of Cythera.

With a pome or rose
You would show off the altar before
And a precious flute;
Me in a dancer's outfit
And with shiny new shoes.

Charming Bombshell!
What dice are your snow-colored feet
Your fascinating voice.
But alas! my light tongue
To enumerate your graces he does not dare. (…)

1. Fragment of "Idyll II", from Bion of Smyrna (lived at the end of the 2nd century BC). C.)

Through a green forest
of dense thickness
do never penetrate
the rays of the sun,
With nets and reeds,
And of birds in pursuit
wandered a beardless
Sweet hunter.
sitting in the branches
From a leafy box.
he suddenly looked
To the winged Love:
Happy boy
The reeds of him gathered
And he said in his joy
With childish candour:
"Oh what a big bird!
What prey to make I go!
There will be no hunters
Soon which me.
that I am the most skilled 
They will say with one voice
Seeing that in my networks
Such a bird fell. (…)

1. Fragment of "Idyll V", from Mosco de Siracusa (lived in the 2nd century BC). C.)

(...) To the unhappy fisherman
Sad life in luck fits:
At home you have the ship
And the waves by home.
Of the works of him in payment
The sea denies him mercedes,
And their networks can hardly
Uncertain hunting search.

To me the leafy banana
With the shadow of him fascinates me,
And from the neighboring fountain
I am flattered by the sweet moan.
Soft then is my dream,
Because the farmer does not scare,
But she numbs and likes
The pleasant of him crash to hear.

1. Fragment of “Idyll III. Daphne and Dametas, by Esteban Manuel de Villegas (1589-1669)

Yo

Daphne and Dametas came together,
one goat herder, another cowboy,
while some graze restlessly
and the others the sun flees severe,
which for the most secret breaks
and which ones, when blowing a light north wind,
by the pleasant distracted shadows,
with peace enjoyed, with mercy moved.

II

He was robust, yes, Daphne, and young,
to hard exercise then given.
Dametas young man, but not so new
in the business of guarding cattle.
Govern crooks of tamarisk and holly,
and each hat crowned
of wild olive and laurel, and after them,
brown bags on white collars.

III

The lazy idleness, and the severe summer,
from the heavy nap then grave,
the whisper of the Zephyr and the river,
cool the shadow, quarrelsome the bird,
the extended herd and the goat
not yet tired of the gentle pleasure,
in Daphne they occasioned willing voice,
and in Dametas later voice and response. (…)

1. Fragment of "Idyll of Don Cándido María Trigueros on the death of Mr. Don Agustín Montiano y Luyando, between the Arcades of Rome, Legbinto Dulichio”, by Candido Maria Trigueros (1736-1798)

Alexis.
Amnitas friend, you are welcome:
when I find myself in your presence,
my heart widens with joy.
I have not seen you since that day
that on the cool banks of the stream
I heard you sing the sad adventures
of unhappy Ciane, and her father.

Amyntas.
Dear Alexis, be well found;
here we can search, if you want,
some hidden and hidden place
where in the cool shade we sit,
and we can talk as we please.
I also with pleasure heard a thousand times,
your sweet voices: every time I look
these jungles, I remember how gladly
I heard you sing in other times
the just death of Athaliah,
superb daughter of a superb mother. (…)

1. Fragment of "Leander and Hero, Anacreontic myth", by Ignatius of Luzan (1702-1754)

Musa, what do you know?
the mistakes, the delusions
the goods and the evils
of fine lovers.
Tell me, who was Leandro?
What God or what evil
star in the fierce waves
cut the thread to his life?
Leandro, whom a thousand times
the hard exercises
of the stadium
of roses and myrtles
already in the robust fight,
already with the strong disc,
either running or swimming,
skilful, dashing, undefeated,
he loved hero divine
beautiful prodigy
Sesto admired and Abido
about how many beauties.
Black hair, proud
with natural curls,
neck enhancement
the candid stoats.
In proportion and gala
of face, waist and verve,
he wanted to flaunt the sky
careful pilgrims. (…)

1. Excerpt from "The Absence", by Juan Melendez Valdes (1754-1817)

From the purple sky
the shadows chase away
pink the dawn
laughing to the ground;
and Phillies, sore
from the evil of absence,
of Otea the valleys
in tears she waters.
sweet carnation,
when she barely counts
seventeen aprils
innocent and beautiful,
in sad solitude
her youth leaves her,
that of the Tormes clearing
she went over to Eresma.
a rich foreman
she there she says she tries
save it, and that Phillies
forever lose it.
who to alien taste
she held her star
deceive yourself fool
if she free she thinks.
frozen old age
rigorously condemns
the lush flowers
of spring.
The unhappy Phillies
imagine eternal
the hours it takes
good news.
“Ouch!” he says, and to heaven
eyes lift,
his eyes covered
of horror and sadness,
"Oh, how much awaits me
of duels and complaints!
just thinking about it
my chest freezes. (…)

1. Fragment of “Idyll I. Anfriso to Belisa, by Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos (1744-1811)

Of Betis lying down
on the green shore,
thus the pastor Anfriso
he lamented one day,
blaming the contempt
of the cruel Belisa:

-Allow the just heaven,
ruthless nymph,
that in affliction I cry
I'll see you some day
allow of the gods
the always fair anger
that with your crying and complaints
comfort me mine.

When the one you adore
mocked and offended,
you complain to the heavens,
the mountains and the silvas;
when your ungrateful face
discover the ruin
of raging jealousy,
of jealous anger;
and when your eyes
the homicidal lights
cares darken,
sorrows and vigils,
and the continuous crying
I looked at them withered;
then, solaced,
my sad soul
you will forget your sorrows,
its ills and its troubles;
then the burning cry
that today waters my cheeks,
at the sight of your tears
turn into laughter;
then the anguish
that saddens my heart,
the cravings that afflict you,
the jealousy that stings him,
they will be exchanged in taste,
consolation and joy. (…)

1. Idyll that is part of a monologue of The Dorothea, by Lope de Vega (1562-1635)

(...) What do I want that the soul
crying distilled
Until with yours
This unit doubles;

that since my crying
Until you die please,
so sweet thoughts
They will later be phoenixes.

In bronze his memories
With eternal burins
Love, not with lead,
Soft paper prints.

Oh light, you left me!
when will it be possible
Let your soul see you again
And what do you animate this life?

My loneliness feels...
But oh!, that where you live,
Of my crazy wishes
In sweet peace you laugh. (…)

References

• Gonzalez, X. (2018). "Oh sad solitudes!" The piscatory idylls and the lyrical journeys of The Dorothea. Olivar: magazine of Spanish literature and culture, 18(28), e038. https://doi.org/10.24215/18524478e038
• Germ Manuals. (s.f.). The art of making verses.
• Montaner, A. (2015). Dictionary of genres and lyrical modalities of Hispanic literature. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2607.5368
• Rubio Escudero, C. (2015). Idyll. In Spanish Dictionary of International Literary Terms. Retrieved on May 9, 2022, from http://www.proyectos.cchs.csic.es/detli/sites/default/files/Idilio.pdf

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