A form of
poetry, usually a short
pastoral scene. The term originates with
Theocritus of Syracuse (fl. c. 300 BCE), whose poems are all called Idylls. But the Greek is
eidúllion, diminutive of
eîdos 'shape, scene', and does not specifically refer to
nymphs or
shepherds. Theocritus himself was quite varied, but the Theocritean scenes most imitated by later writers (from
Virgil to
Milton to
Tennyson) were the
bucolic ones featuring rushing brooks and simple flutes and forlorn lovers looking after
goats.
Virgil's Eclogues and Milton's lament Lycidas can be considered true idylls. Tennyson's epic on King Arthur, though titled Idylls of the King, is not idyllic in the traditional sense. The word idyllic has come to mean belonging to a never-never world of bliss in the countryside.
The word has been used outside poetry: Wagner wrote his Siegfried idyll for the birthday of his wife Cosima.