Definition of "idyll" []

• A short poem or prose piece depicting a rural or pastoral scene, usually in idealized terms. (noun)
• A narrative poem treating an epic or romantic theme. (noun)
• A scene or event of a simple and tranquil nature. (noun)
• A carefree episode or experience: a summer idyll on the coast of France. (noun)
• A romantic interlude. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In so far as the idyll is a signifier to which a real world referent can be attached -- pre-industrial culture, medieval society, etc. -- we might be dubious of a restoration that is essentially an act of validation."
• "However much we can all appreciate the arguments in favour of renting, most of us still hanker after the long-term idyll of bricks, mortar and a white picket fence."
• "But the idyll is soon broken when the past rushes back to threaten the Amnipours once more, and the lives they left behind in revolution-era Iran bleed into the present."