- The Idyll derives its name from a Greek word meaning 'a little picture'.
- It is a description generally in verse of some scene or event which is strikingly attractive and complete in itself.
- The idyll is not a distinct species of poetry; it may take the form of a short lyric, a longer poem, a passage in a play, epic, ballad or any other kind of poem.
- The idyll has its origin with classical poets like Theocritus and Virgil.
- They wrote Pastoral idyll. A pastoral idyll avoids the mournful tone of a pastoral elegy and confines itself to description of calm, peaceful and happy existence.
- In classical times idylls dealt with a variety of themes like mythology, country and town life and the poet's own experiences.
- But the English idyll, generally, has limited its scope to the treatment of low and simple life.
- Two important characteristics of the idyll are its relative brevity and pictorial effect.
- The poet presents in a few words and the pictorial effect is achieved by graphic description.
- One of the earliest idylls in English is Marlowe's 'The Passionate Shepherd to his Love'.
- Milton's L'Allegro can be considered a series of idylls, each one a picture of happy life.
- Wordsworth's 'Lines Written in March' is a beautiful idyll depicting a spring scene in England.
- The pastoral scenes in Shakespeare's 'As You Like It' and 'The Winter's Tale' can be considered idylls of country life.
- However, Tennyson used the term 'idyll' for short and pleasing narratives in his 'English Idylls' and Browning wrote a series of dramatic idylls.
- The idyll keeps relatively close to ordinary life and gives an idealized version of it.
- It is an imaginative rendering of a calm and peaceful scene or experience.
- The language used is simple, direct and straightforward.
- It is free from literary ornament.
- For example - Longfellow's 'The Village Blacksmith' is an idyll written in simple style.
- Since idylls idealize ordinary existence, Tennyson was justified in using the term in the title of his 'Idylls of the King' because these poems give idealized pictures of medieval chivalric life.
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