(Gr. ἴδυλλον, Lat. Idyllium, or Edyllium), a short highly-wrought descriptive poem, treating chiefly of the appearances and phases of external nature, and the sentiments and incidents of rural and especially of pastoral life. In its widest sense, the idyll comprehends, according to Wordsworth, in addition to bucolic poetry, strictly so called, the epitaph, the inscription, the sonnet, and most of the epistles of poets writing in their own persons. Idyllic writing was cultivated among the Greeks, but to no great extent; though the extant works of Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, show that the Hellenic tongue was as well adapted for this as for the higher kinds of composition. Among the Latins, Virgil and Ausonius both wrote idylls; but the term, as used by them, comprised, as it now does, a much wider range of subject than the Greek idyll. In modern times the idyll was re-introduced as a species of poetry by the provincial poets, among whom Givaud Riquier was prominent in this style. His fame was eclipsed, at a later age, by that of Marot, Ronsard, and Vaquelin. One of the best idylls of this age is that of Grotius, entitled Myrtillus, sive Idyllium Nauticum. The names of Racine, B. Rousseau, and Fontenelle, are found among those who affected the idyll in France. In Italy, Aquilano, Spagnuoli (surnamed the "Mantuan"), and Sannazzaro, all wrote good Latin idylls, and were followed by Bernard Tasso, Sammartino, Franco, Calino, and Rota, who employed their vernacular as the vehicle of their thoughts. At the close of the eighteenth century Bertola appeared, and was ranked by his countrymen with Gessner. Among the Spaniards, Garciaso de la Vega alone is now esteemed as a pastoral poet. The fame of Cervantes and Vincent Espinel as idyll writers is lost in the glory of their success in other walks of literature. English literature, rich in other kinds of poetry, is poor in pastorals of genuine poetic merit. Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar was called by Dryden "the most excellent work of the kind that has been composed since Virgil." Excepting several of Milton's minor poems,—such as the Lycidas, Il Penseroso, L'Allegro, and the Arcades; Pope's Windsor Forest; Thomson's Seasons; Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd; Goldsmith's Deserted Village, and a few others,—most of the expressly pastoral poetry of England is not worth reading. In Switzerland the name of Gessner is supreme in the department of the idyll; while in Germany those of Kleist and Voss were, till the appearance of Goethe, the acknowledged chiefs in that walk of literature.