SOURCE: “The Pastoral World: Arcadia and the Golden Age,” in The Pastoral Mode: A Casebook, edited by Bryan Loughrey, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1984, pp. 133-54.
In the following excerpt from an essay first published in 1972, Lerner argues that the pastoral, as a representation of the provincial mediated by courtly writers seeking relief from the problems of a sophisticated society, is poetry of illusion and thus of wish-fulfillment.
This is a free excerpt of 67 words. There are 4,054 words (approx.
14 pages at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
Read the rest of this Criticism with our Pastoral Literature of the English Renaissance: Critical Essay by Laurence Lerner Access Pass.
