In the “Prologue” of La Galatea, Cervantes classifies the style of the work not as a plot-oriented novel but rather as an eclogue. Therefore, it is very important to analyze the characteristic of an eclogue that Cervantes identifies as his work`s genre. Cervantes esteemed writing poetry as a primary type of creative activity. Hence, he wished to write his work in the form of a poem, especially an eclogue which had a wide range of contemporaneous readership. The eclogue was a part of the typical classical genre, and it had a flexibility to incorporate other genres including prose. Many remarkable writers chose and wrote this genre as a part of their literary canon. Among these writers, Cervantes mainly modeled himself after Garcilaso de la Vega who had taken the Italian Renaissance poetry and transformed it into his own unique style. However, because of his lack of poetic talent, Cervantes could not write an authentic eclogue like the works of Garcilaso. Cervantes was a novelist, not a poet. As such, his genius as a novelist is amply displayed in his first novel. Betrayal, hatred, murder, et cetera: these negative elements that were hitherto not permitted in traditional pastoral novels add strong realism to Cervantes`s work. Hence La Galatea possesses dualism. The poetic part delivers the morals and the philosophical messages that the author wanted to impart. The prose, with its characteristic realism, brings amusement, vitality, and reality to those messages.