Pastoral Poetry

Catalog description

Do you ever just want to get away from it all? This class will read selections from Latin pastoral poetry, a mode of literature centering themes of nature, springtime, leisure, and relaxation. We’ll read from Vergil’s Eclogues, a collection that predates the Aeneid and whose legacy reaches from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel to Milton’s Paradise Lost to the online Cottagecore aesthetic. We’ll also explore some lesser-known pastoral texts, some by anonymous authors and some written later under the Roman Empire. We’ll discuss how these ancient texts influence our modern pictures of paradise, and how sometimes even the idyllic countryside can be darker than it initially seems . Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement. Prerequisites & Notes Students who have taken a LAT course beyond 201 should enroll in this course as LAT 324. Not offered in 2026-2027