“The Deserted Village” by Oliver Goldsmith: A Critical Analysis

Secure to please while youth confirms her reign,

Slights every borrowed charm that dress supplies,

Nor shares with art the triumph of her eyes.

But when those charms are past, for charms are frail,

When time advances, and when lovers fail,

She then shines forth, solicitous to bless,

In all the glaring impotence of dress.

Thus fares the land, by luxury betrayed:

In nature’s simplest charms at first arrayed;

But verging to decline, its splendours rise,

Its vistas strike, its palaces surprize;

While, scourged by famine from the smiling land,

The mournful peasant leads his humble band;

And while he sinks, without one arm to save,

The country blooms—a garden, and a grave.

Where then, ah where, shall poverty reside,

To scape the pressure of contiguous pride?

If to some common’s fenceless limits strayed,

He drives his flock to pick the scanty blade,

Those fenceless fields the sons of wealth divide,

And ev’n the bare-worn common is denied.

If to the city sped—What waits him there?

To see profusion that he must not share;

To see ten thousand baneful arts combined

To pamper luxury, and thin mankind;

To see those joys the sons of pleasure know,

Extorted from his fellow-creature’s woe.

Here while the courtier glitters in brocade,

There the pale artist plies the sickly trade;

Here while the proud their long-drawn pomps display,

There the black gibbet glooms beside the way.

The dome where Pleasure holds her midnight reign,

Here, richly deckt, admits the gorgeous train;

Tumultuous grandeur crowds the blazing square,

The rattling chariots clash, the torches glare.

Sure scenes like these no troubles e’er annoy!

Sure these denote one universal joy!

Are these thy serious thoughts?—Ah, turn thine eyes

Where the poor houseless shivering female lies.

She once, perhaps, in village plenty blest,

Has wept at tales of innocence distrest;

Her modest looks the cottage might adorn

Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn:

Now lost to all; her friends, her virtue fled,

Near her betrayer’s door she lays her head,

And, pinch’d with cold, and shrinking from the shower,

With heavy heart deplores that luckless hour

When idly first, ambitious of the town,

She left her wheel and robes of country brown.

Do thine, sweet Auburn, thine, the loveliest train,

Do thy fair tribes participate her pain?

Even now, perhaps, by cold and hunger led,

At proud men’s doors they ask a little bread!

Ah, no. To distant climes, a dreary scene,

Where half the convex world intrudes between,

Through torrid tracts with fainting steps they go,

Where wild Altama murmurs to their woe.

Far different there from all that charm’d before,

The various terrors of that horrid shore;

Those blazing suns that dart a downward ray,

And fiercely shed intolerable day;

Those matted woods where birds forget to sing,

But silent bats in drowsy clusters cling;

Those poisonous fields with rank luxuriance crowned,

Where the dark scorpion gathers death around;

Where at each step the stranger fears to wake

The rattling terrors of the vengeful snake;

Where crouching tigers wait their hapless prey,

And savage men, more murderous still than they;

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 shelter’d thefts of harmless love.

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

That called them from their native walks away;

When the poor exiles, every pleasure past,

Hung round their 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 the 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.

With louder plaints the mother spoke her woes,

And blessed the cot where every pleasure rose;

And kist her thoughtless babes with many a tear,

And claspt 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 pleasures 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;

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 excell,

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 were 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 possest,

Tho’ very poor, may still be very blest;

That trade’s proud empire hastes to swift decay,

As ocean sweeps the labour’d mole away;

While self-dependent power can time defy,

As rocks resist the billows and the sky.

1. Nostalgia for Rural Life

Goldsmith’s poem is a heartfelt lament for the lost simplicity and charm of rural life. The speaker fondly recalls Sweet Auburn as a harmonious, idyllic village where people thrived in innocence, health, and communal happiness. This theme emerges strongly in lines such as:

• “Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain, / Where health and plenty cheared the labouring swain.” Goldsmith portrays rural life as a balance between labor and leisure, where:
• “How often have I loitered o’er thy green, / Where humble happiness endeared each scene!” The imagery of bustling village life with its games, dances, and simple pleasures highlights the deep emotional connection to a lifestyle now destroyed. The nostalgia underscores a longing for a world where communal bonds and nature thrived together.

2. Critique of Wealth and Social Inequality

The poem critiques the destructive effects of wealth accumulation and social inequality, particularly on rural communities. Goldsmith condemns the greed of the rich, who displace the poor in their pursuit of luxury. This theme is encapsulated in the famous lines:

• “Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, / Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.” The displacement caused by enclosures and industrialization is depicted in:
• “One only master grasps the whole domain, / And half a tillage stints thy smiling plain.” Goldsmith contrasts the pomp of the wealthy with the despair of the poor, criticizing how materialism leads to societal decay:
• “The country blooms—a garden, and a grave.” This theme reflects a moral critique of progress and modernization, where wealth for a few comes at the cost of the many.

3. Displacement and Emigration

The theme of displacement is central to the poem, as Goldsmith describes the forced migration of villagers who must leave their homeland due to economic changes. The exiles’ sorrow is vividly expressed:

• “And trembling, shrinking from the spoiler’s hand, / Far, far away, thy children leave the land.” Goldsmith illustrates the hardships faced by emigrants, both emotional and physical, as they leave the familiar comforts of home for foreign lands. The description of their plight in distant colonies is particularly vivid:
• “Through torrid tracts with fainting steps they go, / Where wild Altama murmurs to their woe.” This theme highlights the human cost of social and economic upheaval, emphasizing the loss of identity and connection to one’s homeland.

4. Moral and Cultural Decline

Goldsmith laments the erosion of rural virtues and communal life due to the rise of luxury and industrialization. He views the shift from agricultural self-sufficiency to urban excess as a moral failing:

• “But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride, / When once destroyed, can never be supplied.” The poem criticizes the abandonment of traditional values, symbolized by the displacement of the rural poor and the collapse of institutions like the village church and inn. Goldsmith mourns the loss of cultural identity:
• “Contented toil, and hospitable care, / And kind connubial tenderness, are there.” This decline is portrayed as an inevitable consequence of greed and luxury, with the poet warning:
• “Trade’s proud empire hastes to swift decay, / As ocean sweeps the labour’d mole away.” Goldsmith’s theme of moral decline reflects a broader concern about the direction of progress and its impact on human dignity.

1. How does Goldsmith portray the impact of wealth accumulation on rural communities?

• Goldsmith critiques wealth accumulation as a force that devastates rural communities by driving out the peasantry and transforming shared spaces into private luxury. In lines like “Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, / Where wealth accumulates, and men decay,” he highlights the paradox of economic progress leading to social regression. The displacement caused by enclosures, described as “One only master grasps the whole domain,” shows how land privatization uproots families, depriving them of livelihoods and cultural roots. Through these depictions, Goldsmith conveys that the pursuit of wealth, unchecked by ethical considerations, disrupts the harmony of traditional communities and replaces it with isolation and inequality.

2. What role does nostalgia play in the poem?

• Nostalgia is a central theme in The Deserted Village, shaping its emotional and thematic framework. Goldsmith idealizes Sweet Auburn as a pastoral paradise where life was once simple, joyful, and morally grounded. He writes, “How often have I loitered o’er thy green, / Where humble happiness endeared each scene!” By contrasting this idyllic past with the desolate present, where “Thy sports are fled, and all thy charms withdrawn,” Goldsmith creates a profound sense of loss. Nostalgia serves not only as a personal reflection but also as a critique of societal change, suggesting that progress has come at the cost of cultural values and human connection.

3. How does the poem address displacement and emigration?

• Goldsmith vividly portrays the human suffering caused by displacement and forced emigration, particularly due to economic pressures and land privatization. The villagers of Sweet Auburn are depicted as “trembling, shrinking from the spoiler’s hand,” driven to abandon their homes and seek uncertain futures in distant lands. The description of emigrants enduring “torrid tracts with fainting steps” and confronting the dangers of foreign landscapes evokes the physical and emotional toll of such upheaval. This theme critiques the systemic forces that prioritize profit over people, illustrating the global consequences of local economic policies and colonial expansion.

4. What is the significance of Goldsmith’s critique of luxury and materialism?

• Goldsmith critiques luxury and materialism as corrosive forces that undermine societal and moral foundations. He contrasts the simplicity and contentment of rural life with the emptiness of urban wealth, writing, “But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride, / When once destroyed, can never be supplied.” Luxury, depicted as “a bloated mass of rank unwieldy woe,” corrupts not only individuals but entire societies, leading to moral decay and environmental destruction. Goldsmith’s disdain for materialism reflects his belief in the value of modest living and the preservation of communal and spiritual virtues over fleeting, extravagant pleasures.