What is idyll?

What Does idyll Mean

From the Latin idyllĭum , which has its origin in a Greek word that means "short poem" , the term idyll allows us to name the love affair and the relationships between lovers .

In everyday language, therefore, an idyll is a romance that is presented as ideal and perfect for the couple. For example: “The actress and the model live an idyll that led them to spend a romantic week on a paradisiac island in the Caribbean” , “I think the romance ended and now I see what Juan is really like” , “With Mariana we have a idyll that has been going on for more than a decade ” .
It is often spoken of idyll in the first months of a romantic relationship, when the stage of infatuation is at its best and lovers experience a kind of fascination. In the idyll, the other person is idealized and no defects are recognized. The confrontations and discussions in those moments are non-existent and it seems that there is no conflict. With the advance of time , the sentimental relationship approaches reality: the defects of the other are recognized, but they are accepted without the couple being affected or coexistence is prevented.

Starting from this meaning of the term idyll, we have to emphasize that within the artistic field we find a multitude of works that revolve precisely about it. Among them we could highlight, for example, the short story entitled "The idyll" that was made by the French writer Guy de Maupassant.
Within this sector we cannot ignore the works “The strangest idyll” by the American playwright Tennessee Williams, or “The idyll of a sick person”. The latter belongs to the Asturian writer Armando Palacio Valdés, framed within the Realism of the 19th century.
It was in 1884 that this Spanish author made the aforementioned work, which is considered one of the most perfect and interesting in his bibliography. Simple in its argument, taking its native Asturias as the setting, and with perfectly delimited characters is how it is presented.
In the field of music, in the same way, we also find another interesting work that revolves around love and the beginnings of a relationship. We are referring to the symphonic composition "Siegfried's Idyll", made by the German Richard Wagner in 1870.
In the field of literature , on the other hand, idyll is a subgenre of Greek lyrical poetry that is part of the bucolic . These are dialogued poems of love themes, with situations that take place in a pleasant environment and whose protagonists are usually shepherds or peasants.
The poet Theocritus (310 BC - 260 BC) is considered the father of this type of literary subgenre. However, other figures who also left their deep mark on its development are Bion of Smyrna, from the 2nd century BC, and the poet Mosco of Syracuse, also from the 2nd century BC, who was one of Theocritus' greatest followers. .

A technical analysis shows that the idyll is written in Doric dialect and in dactyl hexameter. This subgenre influenced the development of the eclogue and the pastoral novel.

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