Literary notes about Bucolic (AI summary)
The term “bucolic” is employed in literature to evoke images of the pastoral and rustic, often highlighting a nostalgic or idyllic countryside quality. Its usage can be both straightforward—describing natural, rural settings with qualities of simplicity and unspoiled beauty, as seen in references to a “bucolic perspective” in vast, serene landscapes ([1])—and more nuanced, reflecting a disposition that is either ingenuous or ironically unsophisticated ([2], [3]). The word also carries classical associations, being linked to the pastoral tradition of poets like Theocritus, which underscores its historical pedigree in depicting rural life ([4], [5]). Thus, “bucolic” functions as a versatile descriptor that spans from the picturesque and idealized to the characteristically plain or even humorously rustic in various literary contexts ([6], [7]).
- Open for me a bucolic perspective as far as you can see, beneath a marble colonnade.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - Mr. Cramphorn and his friends had been aware of Honor's engagement for three months; but the bucolic mind is before all things deliberate.
— from Sons of the Morning by Eden Phillpotts - “But, I say,” remarked the police sergeant, whose slow, bucolic common sense was still pondering the open window.
— from The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle - Daphnis is the hero of bucolic poetry; Julian echoes Theocritus 12.
— from The Works of the Emperor Julian, Vol. 2 by Emperor of Rome Julian - Theocritus , the greatest of Greek bucolic poets, lived in the first half of the third century B.C.
— from Through the Year with Famous Authors by Mabel Patterson - I remember being introduced in the ante-room to the chairman of the evening, and, big bucolic giant as he was, he seemed fearfully perturbed.
— from Literary Tours in The Highlands and Islands of Scotland by Daniel Turner Holmes - The bucolic mind does not readily apprehend the refinements of good taste.
— from Adam Bede by George Eliot
