Idylls also usually focus on pastoral and rustic subjects and evoke a sense of peace and contentment.  So not only does the collection recall a past heroic ideal, but also the name “Idyll” hearkens back to a time before the troubles of the Industrial Revolution when England was primarily an agricultural society.
	An epic is a long narrative poem that recounts the adventures of a national hero who embodies the qualities most valued by a particular nation or culture.  Tennyson wanted to write an epic in the tradition of the old Greek and Roman epics, but he wanted to write an epic for modern England using England’s national hero to address the problems of Victorian England.