Pastoral: noun - a
book about the care of souls (now obsolete); Christian: a pastoral staff, letter,
epistles; a pastoral poem, play or picture (now rare); in music, equivalent to ‘pastorale’;
pastoral poetry as a style of literary composition.
Adjective - relating
to shepherds or their occupation; relating to sheep or cattle farming; land
used for pasture; in scenery, a landscape with the natural charm associated
with pastureland; in literature, music, or works of art, showing rural life or
the life of shepherds in a romantic way; relating to a pastor or the spiritual
care of a congregation; relating to a teacher’s duty to give moral care and
guidance.
We rarely use the noun form now but I suspect most are
familiar with its use in music; e.g. Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony.
The adjectival use is more common however:
‘The paintings of John Constable can be described as
pastoral, in that they often exclude the less attractive elements of the
landscape in which he lived and worked.’
‘All the mothers were devastated to discover that the Catholic
father who’d been expressly appointed to supervise the pastoral care of their
children had turned out to be a paedophile.’
Pic: A pastoral landscape.
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