peep So there are shepherds sheep cornfields poppies and wildflowers These are all pastoral elements Nature Brings Back Memories Arnold uses pastoral elements like trees hills flowers fields and the River Thames in his elegy Thyrsis In this poem the poet mourns the death of his friend Arthur Hugh Clough Here nature is not just a decoration It brings back memories of the past The poet remembers how he and Clough enjoyed the peaceful countryside together They enjoyed hearing sheep bells and watching mowers cutting grass But now everything has changed He writes Where are the mowers They all are gone and thou art gone as well These lines show how nature itself reminds the poet of the loss of his friend Nature as a Symbol Arnold also uses pastoral elements as symbols in his poems Nature stands for memory hope and purity In Thyrsis the elm tree on the hill becomes a symbol of hope and the memory of Clough The poet and his friend spent happy days in nature They used to enjoy the beauty of the elm tree together Now the poet s friend is no more So the elm tree brings back the memory of him When the poet sees the elm tree he feels hope again Even though people and nature change the tree still stands on the hill He imagines that Clough is saying Our tree yet crowns the hill This shows that the elm tree gives hope to the poet Moreover in The Scholar Gipsy nature becomes a symbol of purity away from the busy modern life Pastoral Elements vs Modern Life Arnold uses pastoral scenes to show the difference between nature and the busy restless modern life In The Scholar Gipsy modern people are shown as tired and confused But the Scholar Gipsy left the busy modern life to live in close contact with nature He left Oxford to live among the gipsies Nature provides purity peace and deep spiritual knowledge for him and he wants to find all these The poet imagines the Scholar Gipsy is still wandering the fields He is Waiting for the spark from heaven to fall This suggests that we can find deep spiritual knowledge in nature In conclusion pastoral elements create a peaceful pastoral world in Arnold s poetry Here the fields hills rivers shepherds trees flowers and village life express sadness memory and hope The pastoral scenes help Arnold to contrast nature s purity with modern restlessness Through these pastoral elements Arnold teaches us that nature is a calm and pure place where we can find strength peace and the light of truth