While oft in whirls the mad tornado flies,
Mingling the ravaged landscape with the skies.
Far different these from every former scene,
The cooling brook, the grassy vested green,
The breezy covert of the warbling grove,
That only sheltered thefts of harmless love.

360

That called them from their native walks away;

Good Heaven! what sorrows gloom'd that parting day,

When the poor exiles, every pleasure past,

Hung round the bowers, and fondly looked their last
And took a long farewell, and wished in vain
For seats like these beyond the western main,
And shuddering still to face the distant deep,
Returned and wept, and still returned to weep.
The good old sire that first prepared to go
To new found worlds, and wept for others' woe;
But for himself, in conscious virtue brave,
He only wished for worlds beyond the grave
His lovely daughter, lovelier in her tears,
The fond companion of his helpless years,
Silent went next, neglectful of her charms,
And left a lover's for a father's arms.

370

With louder plaints the mother spoke her woes,
And blest the cot where every pleasure rose,

380

And kissed her thoughtless babes with many a tear,
And clasped them close, in sorrow doubly dear,
Whilst her fond husband strove to lend relief

In all the silent manliness of grief.

O luxury! thou curst by Heaven's decree,

How ill exchanged are things like these for thee!
How do thy potions, with insidious joy,
Diffuse their pleasure only to destroy!

Kingdoms by thee, to sickly greatness grown,
Boast of a florid vigour not their own.

At every draught more large and large they grow,
A bloated mass of rank unwieldy woe;
Till sapped their strength, and every part unsound,
Down, down they sink, and spread a ruin round.
Even now the devastation is begun,

And half the business of destruction done;

390

Even now, methinks, as pondering here I stand,

I see the rural virtues leave the land.

Down where yon anchoring vessel spreads the sail,
That idly waiting flaps with every gale,
Downward they move, a melancholy band,
Pass from the shore, and darken all the strand.
Contented toil, and hospitable care,

And kind connubial tenderness, are there;
And piety with wishes placed above,
And steady loyalty, and faithful love.
And thou, sweet Poetry, thou loveliest maid,
Still first to fly where sensual joys invade;
Unfit in these degenerate times of shame
To catch the heart, or strike for honest fame;
Dear charming nymph, neglected and decried,
My shame in crowds, my solitary pride;
Thou source of all my bliss, and all my woe,

That found'st me poor at first, and keep'st me so;
Thou guide by which the nobler arts excel,

Thou nurse of every virtue, fare thee well!
Farewell, and O! where'er thy voice be tried,
On Torno's cliffs, or Pambamarca's side,
Whether where equinoctial fervours glow,
Or winter wraps the polar world in snow,
Still let thy voice, prevailing over time,
Redress the rigours of the inclement clime;
Aid slighted truth with thy persuasive strain;
Teach erring man to spurn the rage of gain;

Teach him, that states of native strength possessed,
Tho' very poor, may still be very blessed;
That trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay,
As ocean sweeps the laboured mole away;
While self-dependent power can time defy,
As rocks resist the billows and the sky.

400

410

420

430

NOTES TO THE DESERTED VILLAGE.

(The numbers refer to lines. Consult Painter's "Guide to Literary Criticism," Parts I and III.)

FOR general remarks on the poem, see the sketch of Goldsmith.

I. Auburn

details.

2. Swain =

- Lissoy probably, though with the addition of imaginative

peasant. A favorite word among the poets of the last century, by whom it was used in a somewhat vague sense as "shepherd," "lover," or "young man.'

4. Parting departing. For the same use of the word, see the first line of Gray's "Elegy."

5. Bowers:

=

dwellings. By poets often used somewhat vaguely.

6. Seats = abodes.

10. Cot cottage.

=

12. Decent =

13. Hawthorn.

neat, becoming.

- The hawthorn bushes around Lissoy have been cut to

pieces to furnish souvenirs of the locality.

16. Remitting = ceasing for a time.

See note to line 6 of "The Cotter's Saturday Night."

19. Circled went round. See line 22.

=

21. Gambol frolicked = sportive trick was played in a frolicsome manner. 35. Lawn plain. See line 1.

=

37. Tyrant:

=

Some wealthy land-owner.

Goldsmith deplores the ac

cumulation of land in the hands of great land-owners, to be used by them, not for careful tillage, but in great measure for ostentation and pleasure.

39. One only master = one sole master.

open spaces, usually low and moist or marshy.

= range, region. — Lapwing = a wading bird of the plover See Webster.

49. Shrinking, etc. Owing to the absorption of the land by great proprietors, the peasantry were forced to emigrate.

52. Decay

=

decrease in number.

"A bold peas

55. Goldsmith is here partly right and partly wrong. antry " is undoubtedly necessary to the highest welfare of a country. But when, in the following lines, he inveighs against commerce and manufacture,

he makes a mistake. These do not injure a country, but increase its wealth, population, and intelligence. When, however, he denounces luxury, which unfortunately he sometimes confounds with trade, he has the approval of all right-thinking men.

63. Trade's unfeeling train = those enriched by commerce and manufacture.

81. Busy train

=

thronging reminiscences of the past.

85. These lines express a real wish of Goldsmith's, but one that was destined not to be fulfilled. The reality of the desire renders these lines pathetic. 88. By repose modifies keep.

100. Age = old age.

105. Guilty state. - State here means livery; and it is called guilty because regarded by the poet as an evidence of criminal avarice and luxury. 107. He the person spoken of in line 99. — Latter end = a Biblical phrase meaning death. See Prov. xix. 20.

=

=

123. The shade the shadows of "evening's close."

132. Mantling = covering as with a cloak or mantle.

136. Pensive expressing thoughtfulness with sadness.

=

137. Copse = a thicket of underwood. Cf. coppice. 139. Disclose reveal, mark.

140. Mansion

tensions.

=

house, habitation; usually one of some size or pre

149. Vagrant train wandering company; tramps.

=

broken down by age, sickness, or some other cause. kindle with interest or enthusiasm.

171. Parting. See line 4.

189. As some tall cliff, etc. - This has been pronounced one of the sublimest similes in the English language.

194. Furze

= a thorny evergreen shrub. It is called "unprofitably gay" because, in spite of its beautiful yellow flowers, it is of no practical use. 196. The village master = Paddy Byrne. See sketch of Goldsmith.

210. Gauge = measure the capacity of vessels.

221. Nut-brown draughts = draughts of nut-brown ale. With his convivial habits, we may be sure that Goldsmith was not a stranger to the scenes he here describes.

231. For ornament and use. — They were probably used to hide defects in the walls.

4.

232. Twelve good rules. These are worth repeating: 1. Urge no healths. 2. Profane no divine ordinances. 3. Touch no state matters. Reveal no secrets. 5. Pick no quarrels. 6. Make no comparisons. 7. Maintain no ill opinions. 8. Keep no bad company. 9. Encourage no vice. 10. Make no long meals. 11. Repeat no grievances. 12. Lay no wagers.

243. Farmer's news. His visits to the neighboring markets would naturally make him the newsman.

- Barber's tale. - The endless loquacity

of barbers is a continual theme for jest or disgust among the writers of the time.

244. Woodman's ballad = perhaps some tale of Robin Hood.

300. Band
305. Common

but to the public.

to bestow her heart and hand.

family.

=

enclosed tract of land belonging, not to an individual,

321. Blazing square, that is, filled with torches, which the rich used before the introduction of street-lights.

355. Crouching tigers.—These exist in Georgia only in the poet's imagination.

403. Shore, strand. — By strand the poet means the line of sand next the sea; by shore, the ground above the sand.

=

418. Torno's cliffs the heights around Lake Tornea in the north of Sweden. - Pambamarca = a mountain near Quito in South America.