Monday 24 October 2011

Theocritus Idyll II. The Serenade

In this idyll the poet assumes the role of a young goatherd desperately attempting to seduce his mistress Amaryllis through his serenade. The poem is essentially divided into three parts, the first starting with five dedicatory lines to his friend Tityrus although there is no dialogue throughout. However, like idyll II, it carries whispers of a dialogue-form by means of a 'mute' character that is constantly addressed; either Tityrus or Amaryllis. 


The second part of the poem regards courting Amaryllis, each offering gifts to show his love. His desperation and torment are shown to progressively increase as the poem moves forward and his gifts become more generous (apples, garland, goat) in vain hopes of winning her love through materialistic offerings. After each gift followed by rejection and the failure of the song, there is a pause directed by elipsis, before the renewal of the despairing cry. 


The poem ends with a love song of four stanzas, bearing the scars of rejection, finally ending in a emotional call to commit suicide for his unrequited love, and a melodramatic claim that Amaryllis should seek some pleasure from his death, or sacrifice. 


Farihah Ferdous

1 comment:

  1. This is alright as far as it goes, Farihah: it just doesn't go very far. You describe the poem, briefly, but don't discuss or analyse it, either by undertaking a close reading of the text, or by using it as a way of engaging with broader theories of pastoral.

    ReplyDelete