idyll

/ˈaɪdl/

Other forms: idylls

An idyll is a short period in which everything is wonderful. You could say a cruise you took with your family was an idyll in an otherwise difficult year.

In its more formal sense, idyll describes a pastoral interlude or a poem set in nature — an idealized, or idyllic, version of nature where you are drinking champagne under the apple trees, and no one has stepped in cow manure or walked through poison ivy.

Definitions of idyll

1. noun

   a short poem descriptive of rural or pastoral life
   synonyms: bucolic, eclogue, idyl

   type of:

   pastoral

   a literary work idealizing the rural life (especially the life of shepherds)
2. noun

   a musical composition that evokes rural life
   synonyms: idyl, pastoral, pastorale

   type of:

   composition, musical composition, opus, piece, piece of music

   a musical work that has been created
3. noun

   an episode of such pastoral or romantic charm as to qualify as the subject of a poetic idyll
   type of:

   episode

   a happening that is distinctive in a series of related events