10 Examples of Eclogue

Eclogue

The eclogue it's a kind of lyric poetry, that is to say, that it is a composition in which feelings, reflections or moods are transmitted. It can be a dialogue between two or more characters or a monologue, and is similar to a short one-act play.

The eclogue is characterized by its central theme, since in this type of poetry loving feelings are always expressed. Furthermore, when these compositions were performed, they were usually accompanied by music.

The first eclogue was written by Theocritus, a Greek poet, in the 4th century BC. C. Later some Roman poets used this subgenre and, centuries later, in the Renaissance these types of compositions were made, especially in Spanish literature.

Eclogue characteristics

Eclogue examples

1. Fragment of “Idilio IV. The Shepherds ”by Theocritus (310 BC C - 260 a. C.)

Bato.
Corydon, tell me, whose are the cows?
Are they from Filondas?
Corydon.
No, from Egon, that now
For the pasture he has given them to me.
Bato.
And where do you hide the milking
Everyone in the afternoon?

Corydon.
Calves
The old man puts them on, and he keeps me well.
Bato.
And has the absent cowherd boy gone?
Corydon.
Haven't you heard? He took it with him
Milton towards the Alpheus. (…)

1. "Idyll IV" of Bion of Smyrna (lived at the end of the 2nd century BC. C)

The Muses of cruel Love do not fear,
Rather they love him in spirit, and his footprints
They continue, and if followed by any
From a heartless soul, they turn away from him,
And they don't want to teach him; more if sweet
Sing of Love, moved the soft chest,
Then they all come running;
I witness that this is true:
Well if I sing to the Gods, or to men,
My tongue gets stuck, nor what before,
He already sings; and if I sing about love later,
Or from Lycida, then from the mouth,
I get a read, and a gentle song.

1. "Idyll VI" by Mosco de Siracusa (she lived in the 2nd century BC. C)

He loved the neighbor Eco Pan;
And echo to a jumping Satyr wanted,
And the Satyr for Lida went mad;
How much I echoed to Pan, the Satyr embraced
To Echo, and Lydia to Satyrus lit;
Love like this to the miserable lost,
And as for one of them he despised the other,
So much was his mistress despised of him,
Of hateful ingratitude, just punishment,
Sweet revenge to the sad lover,
I of the mob in love, friend,
What lovers must there be if there is beauty,
I give you this copy, and at last I tell you:
Love, lovers, with equal tenderness.

1. Fragment of "Bucólica I" by Virgilio (70 a. C. - 19 a. C.)

Melibeo.
Títiro, you, lying under the cover of a leafy beech tree,
you rehearse wild melodies on your thin reed;
we leave the confines of the native land and the beloved countryside;
and we exiled ourselves from our land; you, Títiro, in the shade, carefree,
you teach the beautiful Amarilis to make the mountain resonate.
Tityrus.
Oh Melibeo, a god has created these leisure activities for us,
because he will always be a god to me;
a tender lamb from our sheepfolds will always blood his altar.
As you can see, he has allowed my cows to graze calmly
and myself play whatever I want on a rustic reed. (…)

1. Fragment of “II” by Calpurnius Siculus (lived in the 1st century)

To Crócale, chaste maiden, two young men; they loved
long time, gone one, what owner of woolly cattle
was, and Astaco the other, that an orchard had, both beautiful
and in singing even. A summer day when it burned
the land were found at the foot of some elms and near
from an icy fountain and to the sweet singing they prepared
and to the contest with prizes; that one, if he lost, offered
seven fleeces and the other the fruits of the garden;
It was a great contest and Tirsis as a judge acted.
All kinds of cattle and beasts attended and everything
being that cleaves the air with wandering wings and those
that indolent at the foot of the dark oak graze
his flock; Father Fauno attended and also the bicornes
Satyrs; were the dryads of feet not wet
And the wet-footed Naiads and the rushing rivers
they stopped their courses; the Euro the trembling fronds
respected and a deep silence reigned in the mountains.
Everything stopped; even the bulls trampled grasslands
scorned and even the industrious bee dared
to leave the nectarean flowers, as they were fair.
And Tirsis was already sitting in the shade of a tree
old saying: «You're welcome, guys, the prizes
they serve if I am the judge; reward enough
It is the one who triumphs, the defeated the reproach.
And, because it is possible to order the songs
alternated, each three times the fingers show ».
And immediately the fingers played and it was Idas first. (…)

1. Fragment of "Égloga primera" by Garcilaso de la Vega (1491-1536)

(…) Salicio
Or harder than marble to my complaints,
and the burning fire in which I burn
colder than snow, Galatea!
I am dying, and even life I fear;
I fear it with reason, because you leave me;
that there is no, without you, living for whatever.
Shame I have to see me
none in such a state,
of you helpless;
And from myself I run now.
Do you disdain a soul to be a lady,
where you always dwelt, not being able
della leave one hour?
Go out without duel, tears, running. (…)

1. Fragment of "Eclogue of Plácida and Vitoriano" by Juan del Encina (1468-1529)

(…) Placida.
Wounded heart,
manzilla I have of you.
Or great evil, cruel pressure!
I had no compassion
Vitoriano from me
If it goes.
Sad, what will it be of me?
Oh, because of my evil I saw him!
I didn't think it was bad,
I don't even have it, if I wanted to
not be so elusive and such.
This is my mortal wound
it would heal if I saw him.
See or what?
Well, he didn't have faith in me
it would be better if he left.
What go away? I am crazy,
I say such a heresy!
Too bad it touches so much,
How did it come out of my mouth?
O what a crazy fantasy!
Get out, get out!
God never wants such a thing,
that in her life is mine.
My life, my body and soul
in the power of it they are transported,
she has all of me in her palm;
in my evil never calm
and the forces are shortened to me;
and they lengthen
pains that take so long for me
that conort with death. (…)

1. Fragment of "Égloga a Amarilis" by Lope de Vega (1562-1635)

(…) When I saw my lights dwarf,
when I saw my sun darken
my emerald green mourning
and my pure stars hide,
my misery cannot be pondered,
nor my grave pain become more expensive,
nor can here without tears be said
how my sun went to say goodbye.

The eyes of both felt so much,
I don't know which ones got hurt
those who blinded her, or saw me,
not even love itself knows what they blinded,
although their light alone they darkened,
that remained in the other beautiful ones,
looking at them that they were lying,
for they killed with love what they did not see. (…)

1. Fragment "Bátilo: eclogue in praise of country life" by Juan Meléndez Valdés (1754-1817)

Batilo.
Paced, meek sheep,
The aljofarada yerba,
May the new day with her glow,
While in soft complaints,
They sing to him the dawn,
The sweet little birds to the Aurora:
The goat, climber,
Now let go, she climbs,
Through the tree-lined mount:
You of this meadow
Feed the grass and the little grass,
Peace, my sheep,
Well, the happy days return from April. (…)

1. Fragment of “Égloga III” by Vicent Andrés Estellés (1924-1993)

Nemorous. (…)
I'm scared this afternoon - in the office
of those afternoons of ours, of those days.
Belisa, the world is marching towards disaster.
I'll start dialing from the phone
any number: "Come, Belisa!"
I cry, Belisa, between Credit and Debt.
I cry in the attic that you know.
Belisa, the world is marching towards disaster!

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