eclogue

• eclog, eglog (archaic)

From Middle English eclog, from Latin ecloga, from Ancient Greek ἐκλογή (eklogḗ, “selection”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɛk.lɒɡ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɛkˌlɔɡ/, (cot–caught merger) /ˈɛkˌlɑɡ/

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eclogue (plural eclogues)

1. A pastoral poem, often in the form of a shepherd's monologue or a dialogue between shepherds.
   • 1776, Edward Gibbon, chapter XII, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC:

     The voice of congratulation and flattery was not, however, silent; and we may still peruse, with pleasure and contempt, an eclogue, which was composed on the accession of the emperor Carus. Two shepherds, avoiding the noontide heat, retire into the cave of Faunus.

   • 1823, [James Fenimore Cooper], chapter VIII, in The Pioneers, or The Sources of the Susquehanna; […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), New York, N.Y.: Charles Wiley;  […], →OCLC:

     Only one laborer in this temple of Minerva, however, was known to get so far as to attempt a translation of Virgil. He […] repeated the whole of the first eclogue from memory, observing the intonations of the dialogue with much judgment and effect.

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 63:

     "Every body now is making what they call portraits of themselves and of their friends. Pastoral phrases are called into requisition; and under some name just stepped out of an eclogue, our dames and cavaliers flatter themselves and their friends, and are tant soit peu maligne."

   • 1834, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter IX, in The Last Days of Pompeii. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […]; successor to Henry Colburn, →OCLC:

     Sometimes they marked the form of the silk-haired and graceful capella, with its wreathing horn and bright grey eye—which, still beneath Ausonian skies, recalls the eclogues of Maro, browsing half-way up the hills; and the grapes, already purple with the smiles of the deepening summer, glowed out from the arched festoons, which hung pendent from tree to tree.