One of the motives for his selection of this genre, the pastoral genre, is the tradition -and it's a tradition that goes all the way back to Theocritus and Virgil -that associates shepherds with poets.

他选择这个流派的动力之一，就是田园诗是一种传统,是一种可以追溯到忒俄克里托斯和维吉尔时代的传统,它把牧羊人和诗人紧密相连。

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The pastoral genre in fact even for Theocritus, its inventor, was always highly artificial.

甚至对于忒奥克里托斯，它的创始者来说，田园诗，也一直都是人工雕凿的。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选