Oliver Goldsmith - why the deserted village
... his once rustic, charming village. With lines like “Amidst thy bowers the tyrant’s hand is seen” (line 37) “And desolation saddens all thy green (line 38) and “No more thy glassy brooks reflect the day” (line 41), Goldsmith is telling the reader how much Auburn has changed. Everything is desolated and everything is “in shapeless ruin” (line 47). Because everything is so bad, the “trembling, shrinking, children” (line 49-50) are leaving the land. To Goldsmith, a happy working class is very important to a country and the rural way of life should never be lost. (Lines 63-74) He pains himself just thinking about how things used to be in his village. He had dreamed of coming back to Auburn to retire and eventually die but to him, he can’t do that anymore. (Lines 97-98) After this thought, he starts to remember all the people that made up the population of the town. He recalls the village preacher, the soldier, the village school master, the “spendthrift” (line 153), and the village beggar. All these people gave his village the identity he so cherished. After recalling the people of the village he began to reminisce about the places of Auburn. The most significant place in Auburn was the town pub or bar. This was the place where everybody got their news. Since there was only a few people in the town that could read, everybody would gather there to listen to somebody read aloud the news. All these things gave Auburn a very special distinctiveness that made the town what it was to Goldsmith. All of this to Goldsmith was gone and to him it seemed like anybody could care less. (Lines 251 -253) After he’s done reminiscing, He starts to criticize rich people’s love of their luxuries and the bad things that generally happen in cities. (Lines 329-330) The b...