The Georgics and the Eclogues

Book excerpt: The Eclogues, also called the Bucolics, is the first of the three major works of the Latin poet Virgil, containing ten pieces, each called not an idyll, populated by and large with herdsmen imagined conversing and performing amoebaean singing in largely rural settings, whether suffering or embracing revolutionary change or happy or unhappy love. The Georgics is the second major work by the Latin poet Virgil, with the subject of agriculture; but far from being an example of peaceful rural poetry, it is a work characterized by tensions in both theme and purpose. Publius Vergilius Maro, Virgil, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, The Eclogues, The Georgics, and The Aeneid.