The Deserted Village
poem by Goldsmith
The Deserted Village, pastoral elegy by Oliver Goldsmith, published in 1770. Considered to be one of his major poems, it idealizes a rural way of life that was being destroyed by the displacement of agrarian villagers, the greed of landlords, and economic and political change. In response to the poem’s perceived sentimentality, George Crabbe created a bleak view of the country poor in his poem The Village (1783). The central image of this 430-line poem is the titular village of Auburn, the declining boyhood home of the narrator. As a result of laws encouraging enclosure, aristocrats sought to extend their ...(100 of 130 words)