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shepherd’s song

Genre
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A pastoral lyric voiced by or about shepherds, celebrating nature and simplicity

Detailed Definition
A shepherd’s song is a lyric poem attributed to a pastoral speaker (often a shepherd) that expresses love, longing, or lament against a natural backdrop, typically using conventional imagery (flocks, streams, willows) and musical diction; distinct from dramatic dialogue, the shepherd’s song is solitary and melodic, as in Spenser’s “The Shepheardes Calender” or traditional folk lyrics, blending personal emotion with timeless rural archetype.
Example
Example in poetry:
Theocritus’s Idyll I: Thyrsis sings of Daphnis’s death; Virgil’s Eclogue IV prophesies golden age through shepherd song; Spenser’s "January" in "The Shepheardes Calender" laments lost love; Marlowe’s "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" promises pastoral delights; Traditional English carols like "The Shepherd’s Pipe" celebrate rural piety.
Additional Notes
A shepherd’s song is a solo pastoral lyric—often lyrical and melodic—expressing love, loss, or nature’s beauty (e.g., Marlowe’s “Passionate Shepherd”). It idealizes rural simplicity. Contrast with “rustic poem” by its lack of realism; related to “idyllic lyric.”
Also Known As
Pastoral song Bucolic lay Rustic air Country lyric bucolic poem pastoral poem pastoral verse
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