idyll

Any poem or short written piece composed in the style of Theocritus's short pastoral poems, the Idylls.

• Its pages contain not just recipes but an idyll of prelapsarian plenty, passed down the generations by those who still connect with pagan forces: Saturnus and his groaning table, a Saturnalia from the Golden Age.

An episode or series of events or circumstances of pastoral or rural simplicity, fit for an idyll; a carefree or lighthearted experience.

A composition, usually instrumental, of a pastoral or sentimental character, e.g. Siegfried Idyll by Richard Wagner.