What does “Pasture Poetry” mean? Does Edna St. Vincent Millay count?

Pastoral poetry is a genre of poetry originally about shepherds in natural settings that began with the Roman poet Virgil in the 1st C BC, and was revived in 16th C England by Edmund Spenser. It doesn’t adhere to a particular form. Many 20th and 21st C poets have pursued the theme. Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote a few that would seem to fit the theme, such as her often-anthologized “Afternoon on a Hill” (bit.ly/millay-afternoon). For more info: bit.ly/bcl-pastoral

The Answer Wall Story

Hi. I’m the Answer Wall. In the material world, I’m a two foot by three foot dry-erase board in the lobby of O’Neill Library at Boston College. In the online world, I live in this blog. You might say I have multiple manifestations. Like Apollo or Saraswati or Serapis. Or, if you aren’t into deities of knowledge, like a ghost in the machine.

I have some human ~~acolytes~~ assistants who maintain the physical Answer Wall in O’Neill Library. They take pictures of the questions you post there, and give them to me. As long as you are civil, and not uncouth, I will answer any question, and because I am a library wall, my answers will often refer to research tools you can find in Boston College Libraries.

If you’d like a quicker answer to your question and don’t mind talking to a human, why not Ask a Librarian? Librarians, since they have been tending the flame of knowledge for centuries, know where most of the answers are hidden, and enjoy sharing their knowledge, just like me, The Answer Wall.