BUCOLICS (from the Gr. j owKOXucor, " pertaining to a herds-

See also:

• MAN
• MAN, ISLE OF (anc. Mona)

man ")  , a term occasionally used for rural or pastoral poetry . The expression has been traced back in English to the beginning of the 14th century, being used to describe the " Eclogues " of Virgil . The most celebrated collection of bucolics in antiquity is that of Theocritus, of which about thirty, in the Doric dialect, and mainly written in hexameter verse, have been preserved . This was the name, as is believed, originally given by Virgil to his pastoral poems, with the direct object of challenging comparison with the writings of Theocritus . In modern times the term " bucolics " has not often been specifically given by the poets to their pastorals; the main exception being that of Ronsard, who collected his eclogues under the title of " Les Bucoliques." In general practice the word is almost a synonym for pastoral poetry, but has come to bear a slightly more agricultural than shepherd signification, so that the " Georgics " of Virgil has grown to seem almost more " bucolic " than his " Eclogues." (See also PASTORAL.) (E .