The final four stanzas pay tribute to 'honest' Allan Ramsay's revival of Scottish poetry and his influence on pastoral.

I will take up my slender reed and practise the music of the countryside. Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro), The Song of Silenus, from: The Pastoral Poems (The Eclogues), translated by E.V. Rieu, ...

A classic case of Longley’s blend of political, pastoral and classical themes is his famous poem “Ceasefire,” written in 1994 amid rumors that warring factions in Northern Ireland might ...