The Echoing Woods

For the first time since more than ninety years a survey is offered of bucolic and pastoral, extending from the classical mainspring of the genre to the English 18th cen-tury. The emphasis is on the genre itself, the role of imitation in constituting and maintaining its identity, and on the Renaissance extension from bucolic to the wider and more diffuse phenomenon of pastoral. Therefore the seminal role of Theocritus, Virgil, Dante, Petrarch, Sannazaro, Tasso, and in England Spenser and Sidney is highlighted by means of an analysis of their works in this vein. The subject is of interest for classical scholars who want to become acquainted with the Renaissance revival and mutation of an ancient genre, and for students of English and comparative literature who want to study the important classical sources and the development of pastoral in English literature from 1578 up to the end of the eighteenth century.

A poet's tradition provides him with a sense of community that may be regarded as a necessary condition for poetry. Jenijoy La Belle, who studied with Roethke, here describes the cultural tradition that he defined and created for himself. In so doing, she demonstrates how an understanding of Roethke's sources and the influences on his work is essential for its interpretation. The author considers the sources of Roethke's poetry and the influence on him of a wide circle of poets including T. S. Eliot, Yeats, Whitman, Wordsworth, Smart, Donne, Sir John Davies, and Dante. In addition, she traces the changes in Roethke's response to his literary past as he moves from his early lyrics to his final sequences. His imitation of selected poets began as a conscious effort but later became a basic component of his imaginative faculties, encompassing an historical attitude and a psychological state. Originally published in 1976. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.