Fresh Woods and Pastures New…
Last month, I started a new position in one of Ireland’s leading stockbroking firms. I was sorry to leave my old job in which I had worked in for two and a half years, learnt a lot and was fortunate enough to meet some highly skilled people. However, the chance to broaden my skills and experience, and to work within the Marketing Department of this company was too good to pass up.
During the last week in my old job my manager sent out an e-mail informing people of my departure. Standard procedure I gather but it did get me thinking about the expression “pastures new”…
According to the Free Dictionary.com if someone goes to pastures new, “they leave their job or home in order to go to a new one”. So no surprises there. A google seach of the term “pastures new” reveals about 241, 000 search results, many of which are indeed news and postings about individuals moving location or changing jobs.
But where does the expression “pastures new” originate from?
Turns out it is part of a line from John Milton’s poem Lycidas (1637), which laments the death of a friend drowned in his passage from Chester on the Irish seas.
And now the Sun had stretch’d out all the hills,
And now was dropt into the Western bay;
At last he rose, and twitch’d his Mantle blew:
To morrow to fresh Woods, and Pastures new.
So, the full expression should be “fresh woods and pastures new”. However, “fresh fields and pastures new” is a common misquotation. In more recent years the idiom has broken free of its original context to become a type of high-brow expression; “pastures new”.
Changing jobs is normally associated with some degree of stress. You have to take a bit of a risk and it’s not the easiest thing in the world to do. You’re leaving your comfort zone and facing the unknown. Then there is always a slight fear that the grass could be greener on the other side. Interestingly enough, here’s another expression commonly used in these circumstances that again refers to the land! This time the saying has its origins in Erasmus’ 16th century Latin writings, admiring the fertile look of a neighbor’s corn!
The corne in an other mans grounde semeth euer more fertyll and plentyfull then doth oure owne. By this is noted the lightness, new gangelnesse and constancye of mankynde which estemeth euen straunge thynges better than his own.