Life in him countryside It has multiple peculiarities. It is easy to establish differences between way of life of peasants or shepherds and of those who reside in a city . The natural environment, work with the land and work with animals are part of a rural environment.
When exalts the way of life that is carried in a field, we talk about bucolism . The adjective bucolic , which derives from Latin bucolicus although it has origins in the Greek language, refer to this exaltation and at literary genre which chronicles situations of becoming in rural areas.
For example: "When he retired, Don Manuel moved to the countryside and went on to lead a bucolic life, away from noise and stress", “In 1911, the British writer presented a bucolic book focused on the history of two anarchist pastors ”, “I can spend hours and hours in a bucolic landscape”.
The bucolic, therefore, may be a theme developed in the art , whether in poetry, dramaturgy or plastic arts. These works share the fact of taking place in a rustic or rustic setting .
The main characteristic of bucolic art is the presentation of the peace of the country regions as something dream or ideal . This tranquility is associated with purity and the absence of characteristic vices of cities. The bucolic texts, in this way, exhibit a skewed view of the lifetime pastoral, generally leaving aside the problems and difficulties of this way of life.
Bucolic poetry
The bucolic genre in the poetry, which is also called pastoral, is characterized by the presence of shepherds in wild landscapes, enjoying nature and performing activities such as carefree singing, playing the flute and enjoying their love affairs. Its origin dates from the Alexandrian era and works by three Greek poets are preserved: Theocritus, Bion and Mosco. The first of them was the author of a series of small descriptive poems grouped under the title of "Idylls", which brings together many of the fundamental elements of Greek pastoral poetry.
Not much weather later, the bucolic genre of poetry arrived in Rome and one of the most representative authors was Aulo Gelio, who knew how to mix elements of the pastoral and the elegy with peculiar mastery, which can be seen in his work "Attic Nights".
According to certain scholars, the birth of bucolic poetry was the result of the need of some writers of approaching the harmony that nature emanates, of feeling the freedom that life offers us away from the typical structures and problems of the city. The great contrast between both scenarios made nature a muse impossible to resist and gave rise to a genre that tried to reflect the deepest aspects of the day to day in the countryside, the wishes and customs of the shepherds, with licenses own poetry.
The poets wanted to give life to a poetic space that conveyed the peace and tranquility that were not found in the city and that they considered possible to experience in the countryside. The vision that many embodied in country life is very close to a utopia: it lacked problems and allowed to savor every second, every sunset, every sunrise.
He gender bucolic lived its heyday after the appearance of "The Bucolic"of the Roman poet Virgil, a work that is also known by the title"The Eclogues"However, until that moment there were several writers who ventured to include pastoral motives in their creations. One of the topics covered in the ten poems that make up"The Bucolic"is the confiscation of land that took place during the second half of the 1st century BC.
